Mohammad Eslami (L) with IAEA's Rafael Grossi in Tehran in 2021
Iran’s nuclear chief Sunday threatened retaliation for a resolution passed by the board of the UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, for Tehran’s lack of cooperation.
Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said that the resolution will not help solve existing problems and it will draw a strong response from Iran.
“It seems the European troika [UK, France and Germany] and the United States are accustomed to using various methods of pressure, including resolutions and sanctions, and it is clear that such pressures will be ineffective,” added Eslami during a speech in the city of Isfahan.
The IAEA board of governors passed a new resolution Thursday criticizing Iran over insufficient cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Eslami went on to say that Iran’s nuclear program is developing according to the strategic action law of the parliament, and resolutions against Iran will not cause any disruption in the development of these programs. He was referring to a 2020 law that mandated a high degree of uranium enrichment.
Introduced by the United States, and the E3 – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – the resolution called on the Iranian regime to cooperate with the IAEA’s investigation into traces of uranium found at several undeclared sites used two decades ago.
Resolution of the so-called "safeguards" investigations is critical to the UN watchdog, which seeks to ensure parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are not secretly diverting nuclear material which they could use to make a weapon.