TEHRAN -- Iran on Monday
rejected the UN nuclear agency’s allegation that it had been denied access to a nuclear site in violation of an understanding reached earlier this month, warning the agency that “wrong and spiteful” reports would disrupt constructive cooperation between the two sides.
“It is imperative that officials with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) avoid taking political stances that seek certain purposes and stop [presenting] wrong and spiteful reports in order not to damage the constructive process created following recent interactions between Iran and the IAEA,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran (AEOI), said.
In a statement on Sunday, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi claimed that Iran was failing to fully comply with a joint statement issued by the two sides on September 12 by refusing to allow the agency access to the TESA Karaj Complex, a centrifuge component manufacturing workshop in north-central Iran.
According to the joint statement issued following talks between the IAEA chief and AEOI head Muhammad Eslami in Tehran on September 12, Iran agreed to allow the UN nuclear agency to service surveillance equipment installed at Iranian nuclear sites.
Kamalvandi said the joint statement has specified that the IAEA is to be allowed access to “identified equipment” for “service and replacing memory cards,” except for the Karaj complex.
Grossi and his colleagues well know that the joint statement does not “apply to the surveillance equipment (cameras) of the Karaj complex because it is still undergoing security investigations” as a result of the July act of sabotage against it, the AEOI spokesperson emphasized.
In reaction to the IAEA chief’s Sunday report, Kamalvandi also

said Iran has sent a letter to the agency to protest the “unconstructive” move.
Separately in a tweet thread, Iran’s Permanent Ambassador to the international organizations in Vienna Kazem Gharibabadi decried the UN nuclear agency for accusing the Islamic Republic of non-cooperation with the organization.
In one tweet, he said the IAEA chief’s report was not accurate and goes beyond the agreed terms of the joint statement.
Gharibabadi criticized the agency for staying silent on the “terrorist” attacks and not issuing a statement even for the threat they posed to its own inspectors and equipment.
He also said the agreement earlier this month was for “identified equipment” and Iran informed the agency during discussions in Tehran and Vienna that the equipment related to the Karaj site are not included since the site is still under security and judicial investigations.
“Any decision taken by Iran on monitoring equipment is only based on political rather than legal considerations and the Agency cannot and should not consider it as one of its entitlements,” Gharibabadi said, also saying the agency’s latest report “isn’t accurate”.
Grossi’s report came as the Iranian nuclear chief has reiterated the country’s full and constant cooperation with the IAEA, urging the UN nuclear agency to remain independent and impartial and avoid politically-motivated decisions.
“Iran has always cooperated with the Agency, at the same time, it is necessary that the IAEA avoids playing politics and maintains its independence, impartiality and professionalism,” Eslami said in an address to the 65th regular session of the IAEA General Conference in the Austrian capital of Vienna on September 20.