MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said that Moscow wants Iran to continue its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), following Tehran’s parliamentary move to suspend cooperation after the Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities.
Iran’s parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
Iran denies any such intention to acquire nuclear weapons and maintains that its nuclear programme is only for civilian purposes.
Russia, which has a strategic partnership with Iran, has condemned the Israeli and US strikes and said Tehran has the right to a peaceful nuclear energy programme.
Lavrov noted that the Iranian parliament did not have executive power so its decision was advisory in nature.
“We are interested in Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA continuing,” he told a press conference.
“We are interested in everyone respecting the Supreme Leader of Iran, who has repeatedly stated that Iran does not and will not have plans to create nuclear weapons,” Lavrov said.
Iran to suspend cooperation with IAEA
On Thursday, Iran’s Guardian Council approved a parliamentary bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, Tasnim news agency reported.
The Guardian Council, which reviews all laws for constitutional and religious compliance, gave the green light to the bill proposed by the Iranian parliament.
The bill calls for halting cooperation with the IAEA until security guarantees for Iran’s nuclear facilities are provided.
This move follows a recent parliamentary resolution to stop allowing IAEA inspectors into nuclear sites unless their safety is assured.
According to Iranian state TV, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the International Atomic Energy Agency “refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities” and had “put its international credibility up for auction”.
Qalibaf announced the formal enactment of the law compelling the government to halt all cooperation with the IAEA.
“Today, following approval by the Constitutional Council, the law suspending cooperation with the IAEA has been officially communicated,” Qalibaf stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“Continued collaboration with an agency that acts as an enabler of war and aggression and serves as an executor of the inhumane interests of the illegitimate Zionist regime is impossible until we are assured of the full security of our nuclear facilities,” he added.
Under the new bill, IAEA inspectors will not be permitted to enter Iran’s nuclear installations until Iran receives firm guarantees for their security.
The move comes after a US and Qatar-brokered ceasefire between Iran and Israel ended 12 days of war – including an intensive US military intervention that struck three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 23.
