IAEA technical justification session on Iran, Syria convened

• Text size
•  
•  

Vienna - Technical Justification session of IAEA on agency chief's reports on Iran and Syria was convened Wednesday evening at agency's headquarters here. Iran's ambassador to the agency, Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh said in an exclusive interview with IRNA after the end of the session, "At this justification session that is normally convened before the IAEA Board of Governors Session the Deputy Secretary General of the agency presents explanations based on the Secretary General's reports and then he replies to the questions that are raised respectively."

He referred to the protest made by Iran against the Secretary General's report about the peaceful Iranian nuclear program from the legal and technical points of the view, adding, "At this justification session we declared that this report hurts the technical and expert status of the agency as many of the points included in it are beyond the NPT barriers and are included in the additional protocol instead."

The Iranian envoy at the agency reiterated that the additional protocol and codes 1 and 2 are not obligatory, saying, "That is while the Islamic Parliament of Iran has ratified a law according to which after the Iranian nuclear program's file was forwarded to the UN Security Council, Iran should end its voluntary abiding by the additional protocol."

Soltaniyeh reiterated, "The demands and expectations in IAEA Secretary General Yukia Amano's latest report are beyond Iran's commitments and responsibilities in accordance with the NPT agreement."

He said, "We also criticized about the technical aspects of the report and elaborated that including technical details in it makes it confusing for the typical readers."

The Iranian envoy added, "Beyond doubt, the ambassadors of countries at the IAEA are diplomats, not experts in technical details, about which they have no information, and therefore, including such points is only problematic and tension building. Including erroneous information and technical details should be avoided in preparing such reports."

Soltaniyeh once again pointed out that Iran's criticisms at the justification session were aimed at the technical aspects of the report, adding, "We also answered the questions posed by the ambassadors of the other countries."

Referring to the agency's report on Syria's nuclear program at the justification session, he said, "We also pointed out that the agency's demands of Syria regarding various issues, including information on purchases, or entry into military zones, are quite contradictory with the articles of the NPT, and should not have been posed."

The Iranian envoy reiterated, "In case of Syria issue, the main source of concern is the Zionist regime's attack against a country, and keeping in mind the IAEA report, regarding the observed technical information and the seen pollutions, definitely the source of them is the missiles shot by the Zionists against the Syrian site, which calls for sample taking from the missile launcher in Israel."

Soltaniyeh pointed out that that the agency has not in case of Syria performed its major and technical responsibilities, adding, "The agency should sport the source of the pollutions and instead of inserting pressure against Damascus regarding presentation of information that is quite unnecessary, it should heed its real and technical responsibilities."

He reiterated, "At the justification session we also declared that the member countries at the agency are not responsible for presenting information about their purchases at all and the agency, too, is not allowed to deal with the military zones the same way that it treats the non-military regions."

Soltaniyeh reiterated, "Countries' legal responsibilities and commitments should be surveyed restrictedly within the framework of the agency's documents and regulations.

© IRNA 2010