Iran says 'no obligation' to grant UN nuclear watchdog access to nuclear sites

After United Nation's nuclear watchdog was denied access to Iranian nuclear sites, Iran's UN ambassador, Gharib Abadi has said on March 4 in Vienna that it has “no obligation” to grant access. He said that requests are based on “fabricated information” while mentioning the warnings raised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who indicated towards “secret atomic warehouse”. Abadi's statement came a day after a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in which it reprimanded Iran for denying access to two sites which certain diplomats reportedly believe has a connection to Iran's historic nuclear activity. 

"Intelligence services'' fabricated information... creates no obligation for Iran to consider such requests," said a statement from Iran''s ambassador to the UN in Vienna Kazem Gharib Abadi. 

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According to reports, Gharib Abadi also accused the United States and Israel of trying to “exert pressure” on IAEA in order to distort the active and positive cooperation between the agency and Iran. Meanwhile, Israel has also claimed that the trail of information obtained by its intelligence services has new information on a previous nuclear weapons programme in Iran.

Moreover, the two sites which the Iranian government denied IAEA's access to were among the three locations that the agency had been raising questions over since last summer. In the second report issued on March 3, the IAEA reported Iran was continuing to breach the terms of the nuclear accord of 2015 signed with the world powers but did not report any restrictions in access to nuclear facilities. 

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Seeking access to 'atomic archive'

IAEA is seeking access to sites which has been referred by Israel as the “atomic archive” of information on Iran’s nuclear program. In November 2019, Iran’s nuclear program head Ali Akbar Salehi declared that Tehran had been producing more low-enriched uranium on a daily basis after it restarted an underground lab in Fordow.

Salehi, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), had said that Iran was producing at least 5.5 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, which is almost 12 times what the country had been producing before the underground lab started. Iran had claimed that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes as it has been facing severe sanctions on the economic front after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPoA.

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(With PTI inputs)