Iran: IAEA taken captive by Israeli regime

The head of the AEOI Mohammad Eslami on Thursday night deplored that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been taken hostage by an illegitimate regime and is being exploited.

“It is unfortunate that an international institution has been exploited by an illegitimate regime and its reputation has been questioned, “Eslami said in an interview with Iran’s IRIB.

The remarks came after IAEA chief Rafael Grossi traveled to Israel and met with Israeli premier Naftali Bennett, ahead of the nuclear body’s Board of Governors meeting on Monday.

After Grossi’s trip, the board late on Wednesday approved an anti-Iran resolution, further complicating ties between Tehran and nuclear agency.

Iran has on many occasions cautioned the UN nuclear agency against allowing Israel to influence its independence in decision-making.

Eslami said Iran had limited its nuclear activities in good faith even beyond the commitments set forth by a 2015 nuclear deal with the West; however, the IAEA overlooked Iran’s goodwill gesture.

As a reaction to the anti-Iran move, Iran is going to expedite production and installation of IR-6, IR-4 and IR-2m centrifuge machines and has also announced it has disconnected some monitoring devices installed by IAEA.

Iran also has started injecting gas into advanced centrifuges, a move suspended as a goodwill gesture and beyond Tehran’s safeguard commitments.