UN atomic watchdog has 'no right' to inspect nuclear sites hit by attacks: Iran nuclear chief

ISTANBUL

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) chief on Monday dismissed demands by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect nuclear sites attacked by the US and Israel in June.

According to the ISNA news agency, Mohammad Eslami said Tehran had allowed inspections at nuclear sites that were not attacked.

“There must be a protocol in place for inspections of nuclear sites that have been attacked before permission can be given,” Eslami was quoted as saying.

He also criticized the IAEA for failing to condemn the attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“An agency that does not issue a condemnation and has no instructions, has no right to claim that it intends to inspect,” he said.

Iran has repeatedly faulted the IAEA for not denouncing strikes on its key nuclear facilities and has accused the agency of passing sensitive information about those sites to Israel.

He added that pressure from three European countries, the US and Israel “is not important to us and has no impact.”

Eslami said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi should be held accountable, adding that Iranian nuclear facilities had been under IAEA supervision before the strikes.

"It is the agency that must be accountable and answer to the world,” he stressed, adding that strikes on nuclear facilities could occur in any country and that the agency must explain what procedures it had in place for such events.

Tensions dramatically escalated between Tehran and Washington since the June war, with nuclear negotiations also put on the backburner. Iran insists that talks can only resume once the US guarantees that the process would not be derailed again.

Washington has demanded that Tehran enter direct negotiations on its nuclear program, while insisting that Iran's nuclear infrastructure suffered irreparable damage in US strikes on three key nuclear sites inside Iran during the 12-day war.

* Written by Diyar Guldogan from Washington, DC