Some Iranian officials say readmission breaches law passed after Israel and the US attacked the country in June
Some Iranian officials say readmission breaches law passed after Israel and the US attacked the country in June
The partial return of UN inspectors to Iran for the first time since Israel and the US attacked Iran’s nuclear sites has been met with protests by officials in Tehran, who claim the strict preconditions they set have been breached. Some even described the return as criminal.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, tried to quell the backlash by saying the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would not be visiting any of the bombed sites and that discussions about these were still to be had.
He said the return had been endorsed by Iran’s supreme national security council and that the inspectors would be allowed to visit the Bushehr nuclear site to oversee refuelling only – a role required by the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the IAEA, confirmed on Wednesday that inspectors were “back in Iran”.
Iranian MPs complained that the readmission breached the terms of a law passed in July that banned the UN watchdog’s return on a broad basis in the wake of the Israeli attack on Iran. The representative from the city of Khomeini Shahr, Mohammad Taqi Naqdali, led the protests, saying the breach was a criminal act.
