IAEA chief's remarks non-constructive: Iran

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Tehran, March 25 (IANS) A top Iranian official has slammed remarks made by the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying they were "non-constructive".

In a media interview on Tuesday, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said that "Iran must come clean about recent findings of undeclared uranium to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement", commonly known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reports Xinhua news agency.

In response to the remarks, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based IAEA, said that Tehran has transparent activities under the nuclear body's safeguards agreement.

Gharibabadi stressed that Grossi's remarks could damage IAEA's credibility in Iran and close the window of success in IAEA's next initiatives.

"The JCPOA has already faced problems, so there is no need to make it more complicated by strange remarks," he added.

Earlier this month, Grossi told an IAEA Board of Governors' online meeting that "the presence of multiple uranium particles of anthropogenic origin is a clear indication that nuclear material and/or equipment contaminated by nuclear material has been present at a location not declared by Iran".

As a result of the US' unilateral 2018 exit from the nuclear agreement, Iran has surpassed JCPOA-stipulated limits on its uranium enrichment level and on its stockpiles of heavy water and low-enriched uranium.

The Islamic Republic has also lifted JCPOA limitations on its nuclear research and development activities.

In December 2020, the country's Parliament passed the law of "Iran's Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions" which obliges the government to further reduce the obligations under the nuclear deal unless the US lifts sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

--IANS

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