Iran Warns IAEA Taking Counterproductive Approach in Recent Report

Warns IAEA is putting up obstacles for future goodwill interactions

Iranian officials have issued statements related to the recent IAEA report faulting them for not clarifying the uranium particles found at non-declared sites. They are warning that the IAEA report was “not credible” and “counterproductive.”

The sites in question were alleged to be part of Iran’s nuclear program by Israel. Iran agreed to let the IAEA visit, and they found unspecified particles of uranium, and Iran hasn’t explained why that was. Iran has said those locations were never part of the nuclear program, and one site was putatively a carpet factory.

Iran presented the IAEA visits as a goodwill gesture, and warned future gestures could be at risk because the IAEA came out of this with reports that faulted Iran. Since Iran maintains they had nothing to do with the sites, they view this as something they’d have been better off not to be involved in.

Iran warned it was bad timing too, with ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna. The P5+1 members seem to concur, as they agreed not to take any formal action over the particles, and would just offer single-nation statements of concern.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.