Washington: Terming Iran’s “failure” to reach an agreement with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as “regrettable”, the White House has said it was “disappointed” but not surprised by the Tehran’s denial of access to the inspectors.
“We regret the failure of Iran to reach an agreement this week with the IAEA that would permit the agency to fully investigate the serious allegations raised in its November report,” the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, said yesterday at his daily news conference.
Agencies
The nuclear watchdog yesterday acknowledged its “failure” in trying to probe suspicions that Tehran has worked secretly on atomic arms.
The UN nuclear agency, which maintains regular access to both of Iran’s enrichment facilities at Qom and Natanz, was seeking additional access in line with Iran’s safeguards obligations, to sites and facilities where Iran is suspected of conducting work related to weaponisation activity, he said.
“So, unfortunately, this is another demonstration of Iran’s refusal to abide by its international obligations,” Carney said.
The United States he said will continue to evaluate, working with its P5-plus-1 partners, the letter that it got from the Iranians for talks.
“But this particular action by Iran suggests that they have not changed their behavior when it comes to abiding by their international obligations,” Carney said.
Iran’s decision to refuse IAEA inspectors to its facilities, the State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said is not surprising. “It’s not particularly surprising. But, …the fact that Iran didn’t allow them to visit certain facilities, none of this is surprising. We’ve seen this before, frankly,” he said, adding that the US is awaiting for a more detailed report from the IAEA in this regard before arriving at a definite conclusion.
“We want to see them (Iran) cooperate. We want to see them address the international community’s very well-founded concerns about their nuclear program, and that remains our goal. And that remains our goals via the IAEA, but also working within the P-5 plus one,” he said.
PTI