Russia says IAEA anti-Iran resolution “strategic miscalculation”
Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna has once more criticized the anti-Iran resolution by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, calling it a strategic miscalculation.
The recent #IAEA BoG resolution sponsored by #E3 and the #US provides reasons to believe that they try to derail the #ViennaTalks on #JCPOA,” Mikhail Ulyanov said in a tweet.
The Vienna talks were paused a few months ago following the developments in international political scene in the wake of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine and amid disagreements over a number of outstanding issues between Iran and the United States.
“But in my view it was a non-intentional strategic miscalculation and those countries still aim at successful finalization on the talks,” Ulyanov added.
The resolution, sponsored by Britain, France and Germany and backed by the United States, calls on Iran to immediately return to its nuclear commitments and respond to the proposal by the IAEA’s Director General to clarify what the agency calls undeclared nuclear sites in the country.
After the ratification of the resolution, Iran suspended some of the measures taken beyond its safeguards commitments.
“We decided to halt part of the cooperation [with the IAEA] which was beyond the Safeguards Agreements and was not part of our commitments and was underway to show out goodwill,” the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi said.
Iran’s foreign minister has earlier called the resolution an attempt by the US to score political points against Iran during the negotiations.
“In the face of the unconstructive behavior of the US in the IAEA, we reciprocated by increasing Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities,” Amirabdollahian told his Iraqi counterpart in a phone call.
He added that Iran prefers diplomacy to get a good agreement in Vienna, but will react to any act of bullying.