Iran links future IAEA cooperation to impartiality, after deadly June conflict with Israel and US.Iran’s president has warned the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to abandon its “double standards” if it hopes to restore cooperation over the country’s nuclear programme, amid an acute mistrust following Israel and the United States’ attacks on Iranian nuclear sites last month, and the UN nuclear watchdog’s refusal to condemn the strikes.
Speaking to European Council President Antonio Costa by phone on Thursday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said, “The continuation of Iran’s cooperation with the agency depends on the latter correcting its double standards regarding the nuclear file,” according to Iranian state media.
Pezeshkian also declared that “any repeated aggression against Iran will be met with a more decisive and regrettable response.”
Relations between Tehran and the IAEA have sharply deteriorated since mid-June, when Israel launched air attacks on Iran, hitting military and nuclear sites as well as numerous civilian areas. The attacks were then followed by US air raids using bunker-buster bombs. Iran retaliated by launching missiles and drones at Israel, triggering a 12-day conflict.
An Iranian missile attack on a US base in Qatar was the final act before a fragile ceasefire was declared by US President Donald Trump.
Last week, Pezeshkian signed a law suspending Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA.
The agency confirmed that its last remaining inspectors had now left the country, returning to the IAEA headquarters in Vienna. The agency said its staff had remained in …