IAEA says Iran must ‘seriously improve’ nuclear cooperation, FT reports

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(Reuters) -Iran must “seriously improve” cooperation with the United Nations inspectors to avoid heightening tensions with the West, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi.

Grossi told the FT that while the IAEA has carried out about a dozen inspections in Iran since hostilities with Israel in June, it had not been given access to nuclear facilities such as Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, which were bombed by the United States.

Grossi said in October that movement had been detected near Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile but that it did “not imply that there is activity on enrichment”.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei subsequently said that Grossi was “fully aware of the peaceful nature” of Iran’s nuclear programme and should not express “unfounded opinions” on it.

Iranian officials have blamed the IAEA for providing a justification for Israel’s bombing, which began the day after the IAEA board voted to declare Iran in violation of obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Grossi told the FT that while the agency was trying to approach the “bumpy” relations with Iran with understanding, the country still needed to comply.

“You cannot say, ‘I remain within the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons treaty’, and then not comply with obligations,” Grossi said.

“You cannot expect the IAEA to say, ‘OK, since there was a war you are in a different category’ . . . Otherwise what I will have to do is report that I have lost all visibility of this material”, he said.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed and Michael Perry)