Dismissed IAEA inspectors were nationals of countries keeping harsh political stance: Eslami
Iran’s nuclear chief says the country’s decision last month to dismiss a number of inspectors working for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was a response to the “harsh political” positions adopted by three European countries.
“We removed inspectors from the list who were nationals of countries that show harsh political behavior toward the Islamic Republic,” said Mohammad Eslami, who leads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), on Wednesday.
Eslami said the IAEA has some 127 registered inspectors in Iran, of which a very small number of inspectors have been dismissed.
He added that some of the dismissed inspectors have not come to Iran for years.
Speaking to reporters after a cabinet session in Tehran on Wednesday, Eslami said the JCPOA had become a one-way deal under which other parties were not willing to fulfill their obligations some five years after the US pulled out of the agreement and left it in limbo.
“I told him (the IAEA chief) that your interpretation of the deal is not the JCPOA but the ICPOA, [which is] Iran Comprehensive Plan of Action. Since you do not want to carry out your obligations in a ‘joint’ manner, you are pressuring Iran to unilaterally meet its obligations,” he said.
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