Tehran, June 25 (UNI) Iran has decided to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) until the Agency (IAEA) guarantees security of its nuclear facilities.

However, Iran's Supreme National Security Council will have to give final approval to the move.

Iran which has been a member of the IAEA since 1958, said the Agency's international credibility

is 'up for auction.'



Reports quoting Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the IAEA had put its international credibility 'up for auction' by not condemning the US attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.



“The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction...the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend its cooperation with the IAEA until the security of the nuclear facilities is guaranteed,” he said.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi had on Monday cautioned that the Israel-Iran conflict risks collapsing the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. He stressed the need for diplomacy to resolve the crisis.



'The weight of this conflict risks collapsing the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. But there is

still a path for diplomacy. We must take it. Otherwise violence and destruction could reach unimaginable levels and the global non-proliferation regime that has underpinned international security for more than half a century, could crumble and fall,' the IAEA DG said in his statement to the Board of Governors of the IAEA.

Iran, Israel and the Middle East need peace, he asserted and said that for peace a number of steps need to be taken. All parties should return to the negotiating table and for that IAEA inspectors

should be allowed to go back to Iran’s nuclear sites and account for the stockpiles of uranium, including, most importantly, the 400 kg enriched to 60 percent.

Media reports said that before the US attacks on the three nuclear facilities, Iran had moved out

about 400 kg uranium to an undisclosed place. US media quoted two unidentified Israeli officials

as saying that there is enough evidence to show Iran had removed 400 kg uranium enriched to

60 percent purity to some undisclosed place before the US attacks.

The IAEA DG said any transfer of nuclear material from a safeguarded facility to another location

in Iran must be declared to the Agency as required under Iran’s Safeguard Agreement. Establishing the facts on the ground is a pre-requisite for any agreement and this could only be done through

IAEA inspections.



He said cessation of hostilities was required for the necessary safety and security conditions to

prevail so that Iran could let IAEA teams into the sites to assess the situation. Any special measures by Iran to protect its nuclear materials and equipment then could be done in accordance with Iran’s safeguards obligations and the Agency.

He said IAEA inspectors remain in Iran ready to undertake the required tasks when agreed with Iran and reiterated that armed attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place.

UNI RB GNK 1609