WASHINGTON, Nov 9, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on
Friday slammed Tehran’s treatment of an inspector with the UN’s nuclear
watchdog agency last week as “an outrageous and unwarranted act of
intimidation.”
The top US diplomat said Iran “detained” the inspector, who the
International Atomic Energy Agency has said had been briefly prevented from
leaving Iran.
Iran said Thursday it had cancelled the inspector’s accreditation after she
triggered an alarm last week at the entrance to the Natanz uranium enrichment
plant.
The alarm during a check at the entrance to the plant in central Iran had
raised concerns that she could be carrying a “suspect product” on her, Iran’s
Atomic Energy Organization said in a statement posted online.
As a result, she was denied entry, it added, without specifying whether or
not anything had been found in her possession.
Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA Kazem Gharib Abadi told reporters after a
special agency meeting in Vienna that after setting off the alarms on October
28, the woman “sneaked out” to the bathroom while waiting for a more thorough
inspection with a detector that can find a range of explosive materials.
After her return, the alarms did not go off again, but authorities found
contamination in the bathroom and later on her empty handbag during a house
search.
Iran said IAEA officials were present for all the searches.
The IAEA has not publicly commented on the incident with the inspector so
far.
“The United States fully supports the IAEA’s monitoring and verification
activities in Iran, and we are alarmed at Iran’s lack of adequate
cooperation,” Pompeo said in a statement.
“IAEA inspectors must be allowed to conduct their critical work unimpeded.
We call on Iran to immediately resolve all open issues with the IAEA and to
afford Agency inspectors the privileges and immunities to which they are
entitled.”
Iran has been progressively scaling back its commitments under a landmark
2015 deal aimed at reining in Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for
sanctions relief.
The US left the agreement last year and re-imposed sanctions, leaving
remaining world powers — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia —
trying to save the agreement and mitigate the sanctions.