Iran says Western resolution will ‘weaken’ interaction with IAEA

TEHRAN: A resolution tabled by Western countries to censure Iran´s nuclear programme at the International Atomic Energy Agency “will weaken and disrupt” interactions between the UN body and Tehran, it warned ahead of the vote on Thursday.

Paris, Berlin, London and Washington have formally submitted a text condemning Iran for alleged lack of cooperation with the agency and its nuclear observers.

A formal vote is scheduled for later on Thursday at the UN nuclear watchdog´s board of governors meeting at its Vienna headquarters.

The tabling of the resolution comes a week after a visit to Iran by the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi.

“This inappropriate action of the three European countries to issue a resolution against Iran will only weaken and disrupt interactive processes between the agency and Iran,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement carried by the foreign ministry.

To illustrate this idea, the reformist newspaper Sazandegi puts on its front page a photomontage of Araghchi and Grossi with their backs turned to one another.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said on X on Wednesday that the three European countries were using the IAEA as a “political tool.”