Iran’s UN envoy:

IAEA sole judge on Iran’s compliance with nuclear deal

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iran’s Permanent Representative to the UN Khoshroo in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) of US said the International Atomic Energy Agency is the only eligible source to confirm Iran’s compliance with JCPOA.

News ID: 66632

Date: 23 October 2017 - 14:30

In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) of US, when asked whether Iran is open to changes to the nuclear agreement, Khoshroo said "every word and every letter of that should be observed. Otherwise, Iran will not remain a party to that deal. I mean, it is not renegotiable. Nobody can add something to it or delete something from it.”

He went on to add, "America did its best during the negotiations. It was not [just] America. It was Iran. Other parties also wanted to add more to this deal. But this deal is a result of an agreement - not only preference of one party.”

About Washington’s desire to get access to Iran’s military sites, and Trump’s critique of the nuclear agreement, he said "The referee here is IAEA. IAEA has reported eight times from the time that deal was done that Iran has fulfilled all its commitment. Also, the head of IAEA said that we have access to places that we have asked for. No, America is not observing [the deal]. It's not respecting what IAEA is doing and wants to replace [the Agency].”

About US president’s dissatisfaction with the terms of the deal, Khoshroo said "The United States, particularly this administration, is looking after pretexts, threatening the imposing of sanctions. You know, this kind of action is inconsistent to the letter and to the content of the deal.”

Khosroo went on to stress that while Iran has "a lot of objections” to US behavior, it still wishes to resolve them within the deal, rather than backing out of the agreement; "They [Americans] are creating the atmosphere of uncertainty regarding investment - foreign investment - trade interaction, economy relations. You know, all these actions that America is doing all contravene [the deal],” he added.

Asked whether there is room for some wider accommodation between Iran and the United States, with respect to Washington’s concerns about matters beyond Iran’s nuclear program, Khoshroo said "The United States has some preferences in the region and many, many in the world are not happy with that. Even inside America, many are unhappy about what America has done in Iraq, in Syria, in Yemen. It has been so costly, so risky. So why Iran should obey America in the region?”

Asked about the level of communication between Iran and the Trump administration at the moment, Khoshroo said "to the extent that I know, there is no relationship between Iran and America. On the deal, we had a lot of talks in the past. But no, all have been stopped.”