European Nations Fault Iran’s ‘Invasive Physical Searches’ of IAEA Inspectors

Germany, France, and the UK have issued a joint statement accusing Iran of “excessively invasive physical searches” of IAEA inspectors. UK Ambassador Corinne Kitsell accused Iran of “intimidation” with those searches.

The reports had claimed inappropriate touching during searches, and orders to remove certain articles of clothing. It’s not clear at all that these are violations of the IAEA’s agreements with Iran.

These searches aren’t coming out of the blue. Iran has long had mistrust of inspectors from certain nations, noting how often the details of inspections get leaked through third party countries, and lack the confidentiality that normally is expected.

Iran has also had a serious problem with sabotage attacks, and while the IAEA was not involved in that sabotage, they have also gone out of their way in not publicly condemning Israeli sabotage, even when it damaged IAEA equipment in places.

Again, this isn’t to accuse the IAEA of anything untoward, but all of this put Iran into a position where they feel the need to scale up security in general.