Iran warns of countermeasures against illegal IAEA resolution

Esmaeil Baghaei made the remarks on Friday, one day after the IAEA’s 35-member Board of Governors passed the anti-Iran resolution put forward by France, the UK, Germany, and the United States.

In response, Tehran announced the termination of the deal it signed in Egypt’s Cairo in September to resume cooperation with the UN’s nuclear watchdog. The Ties had been suspended after the deadly US-Israeli aggression against Iran in June. 

Baghaei said, “In an official letter to the Agency, we declared that the so‑called Cairo agreement  — which had been reached with Iran’s goodwill and after relatively long negotiations with the agency — is now canceled. Other measures are also under consideration.”

He also condemned the IAEA’s resolution as a “blatant misuse of the international body” to advance the objectives of the US and the three European countries about Iran’s nuclear issue.

The IAEA’s “wholly irresponsible and unjustified” measure disregards the agency’s own standards and reduces the body to a mere political instrument for exerting pressure on certain member states, the spokesman added, Press TV reported.

“The resolution makes no reference whatsoever to the underlying reasons or causes of the present circumstances. Neither in the resolution nor in the statements of the three European countries and the US is there the slightest reference to the fact that Israel and the United States attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities in June , … [which led to] the cessation of the agency’s inspections and Iran’s cooperation.”

The resolution passed with 19 votes in favor, three against and 12 abstentions, urged Tehran to “without delay” report on its enriched uranium stockpile and facilities damaged in the June aggression, while failing to mention Iran’s longstanding cooperation with the IAEA.

Baghaei said the resolution itself created a division within the Board of Governors, with about half of the member states either abstaining or casting negative votes.

He further denounced the document as “legally weak,” saying it is based on previous anti-Iran efforts at the UN which, Tehran and a significant portion of the international community consider null and void.

He was referring to the recent move by the three European countries and the US to restore all UN Security Council sanctions against Iran via the so-called snapback mechanism.

Meanwhile, the spokesman dismissed the West’s claim of a diplomatic approach to resolve Iran’s nuclear issue as “utterly deceitful and hypocritical.”

“Issuing the resolution itself shows the rejection of a diplomatic solution and reliance on pressure and sanctions,” he emphasized.

Earlier on Friday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the IAEA’s “illegal and unjustified” resolution, whose content “reflects US bullying and the duplicitous behavior of the three European states.”/mehr