Iran’s parliament urges government to halt UN nuclear agency’s Additional Protocol
Condemning a resolution by the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) calling on Iran to stop denying the agency access to two sites, Iran’s parliament urged the government on Sunday to halt the implementation of the Additional Protocol in response.
The Additional Protocol is an expanded set of requirements for information and access to assist the IAEA in its task of confirming that states are using nuclear material for solely peaceful purposes, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
“The parliament would like the government to stop the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol and make supervisions offline,” a statement signed by 240 Iranian lawmakers said, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Friday in which it increased pressure on Iran to allow inspectors into the sites mentioned in two of its reports because they could still host undeclared nuclear material or traces of it.
A picture taken on November 10, 2019, shows an Iranian flag in Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. (AFP)
The resolution is a sign of “structural discrimination” within the IAEA, the Iranian statement said.
The lawmakers criticized Britain, France and Germany who drafted the resolution, saying the three countries “have once again fallen into the trap of America and the Zionist regime (Israel), aligning themselves with their efforts to implement the failed maximum pressure policy against Iran and dealing another blow to international multilateralism.”
Iranian Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on the same day that the Islamic Republic will not allow the IAEA to “trample Iran’s rights and violate the legal frameworks.”
“We do not oppose diplomacy and negotiations, but we believe that negotiations with America are strictly harmful and forbidden,” he said, adding that if Iran was to hold talks with European countries, it must do so with “utmost mistrust.”
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