Iranian lawmaker: Visiting IAEA team will have no access to nuclear sites

Ebrahim Azizi, the head of Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Monday that the IAEA team will be authorized exclusively and solely to hold “technical and expert-level talks” with Iranian officials and experts.

“According to the laws passed by Parliament, Iran will not let physical access to its nuclear facilities under any circumstances,” he said. 

“Also, no inspector from the IAEA team or any other foreign organization will be allowed to be present at our country's nuclear sites,” the Iranian lawmaker added.

Azizi stated that the restrictions are final and irreversible, and that the government is obligated to fully adhere to them.

Issues such as granting access to Iran’s nuclear facilities or permitting inspections requested by the IAEA are not on the agenda of the government and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), he said.

On June 25, Parliament unanimously agreed to suspend all cooperation with the IAEA.

The legislation was passed a day after Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations, managed to impose a halt to June’s Israeli-US aggression that also targeted three of the country’s nuclear sites.

Under the law, inspectors will not be permitted to enter Iran unless the security of the country's nuclear facilities and that of peaceful nuclear activities is guaranteed, which is subject to the approval of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

The rationale for the move was the IAEA’s politically-motivated resolution, which paved the way for the 12-day Israeli-US aggression against the Islamic Republic, and the agency's failure to condemn the terrorist assault.

Iran, IAEA will discuss ‘method of interaction’

During a press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said that no IAEA inspectors are currently in Iran.

He also noted that Tehran’s cooperation with the UN’s atomic watchdog is regulated based on the recent law.

The upcoming visit by IAEA officials to Iran is meant to discuss the “method of interaction” with the agency, given the recently approved legislation, the spokesman said.

"We are facing exceptional circumstances, as the facilities of a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have been illegally attacked by two nuclear-armed regimes," he said.

"Unfortunately, the IAEA did not remain impartial, failed to condemn the attacks, and instead issued a report that provided a kind of political ground for making excuses,” he added./isna