Iran says it is still cooperating with IAEA

Tehran, Jan 23: Iran today said it was still cooperating with the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, a day after announcing it was barring 38 inspectors from working in the country, which the West accuses of seeking atomic bombs.

Iran, which insists its atomic plans are peaceful, yesterday said it was barring the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency after parliament demanded retaliation for UN sanctions imposed on Tehran last month.

The IAEA said this would not handicap its monitoring of a plant where Iran plans soon to expand its output of nuclear fuel from an experimental to an industrial-scale level in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution.

''We have no problem in connection with the IAEA and we will continue our cooperation in the framework of our past cooperation. The IAEA's activities in Iran go on,'' government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a news conference.

IAEA inspectors regularly check Iran's atomic sites to try to verify it is not diverting materials into bomb production in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The West accuses Iran of wanting to build atom bombs under the cover of a professed civilian nuclear energy programme, while Tehran insists it aims only to generate electricity.

Iran has a legal right to reject any inspector it wants since such a step is not prohibited by its safeguards accord.

Some diplomats said Iran wanted to be seen to be acting on parliament's demand to review cooperation with the IAEA, but still wanted to work within its legal rights.

The UN sanctions imposed on December 23 ban transfers of sensitive materials and know-how to Iran's nuclear and missile programmes over its refusal to stop enriching uranium, a process that can yield fuel for power stations or material for bombs.

In response, Iran's parliament passed a bill obliging the government to revise its cooperation level with the IAEA.

Reuters

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