Russia rejects US claim on Iran, IAEA

A senior Russian official has dismissed a recent US claim that Moscow is trying to “shield” Iran from inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which Washington has been pushing to widen to Iran’s military sites.

Mikhail Ulyanov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Weapons Control Department, on Friday said that Washington’s accusation against Moscow was short-sighted.

The IAEA has no reason to request access to military sites in Iran or any other country, he said, according to IRNA.

Ulyanov also said that Haley’s Thursday comments proved that the US was attempting to impose its opinion on the IAEA as well as the other signatories to the nuclear accord.

The IAEA, he said, is permitted to request access to Iran’s non-nuclear sites, but it has to provide reasons for such requests.

The Trump administration has been opposed to the Iran deal, which was negotiated by the former US administration. Trump himself has verbally attacked the deal numerous times and is reportedly planning to refuse to certify Iranian compliance at a mid-October deadline under an American law.

But the IAEA is the official institution tasked with certifying Iranian compliance, and it has repeatedly confirmed that Iran is adhering to its obligations under the deal.

All other signatories, including European countries, have stressed that the deal should be sustained and have cautioned against a potential US withdrawal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday that Europe and Asian powers had to refrain from going along with the US if Washington decided to scrap the JCPOA and re-impose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran.

On Tuesday, Ulyanov, the Russian Foreign Ministry official, had expressed bewilderment at the US posture toward the deal.

SS