MP Calls on West to Lift Sanctions in Reply to Iran’s Cooperation with IAEA

Alaeddin Boroujerdi underlined Tehran’s continued cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) within the framework of the safeguard agreements, and called on the West to lift anti-Iran sanctions in response to Tehran’s cooperation.

 Fars NA – Tehran - Speaking on Friday, Chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi noted that the inspectors from the IAEA have so far visited Parchin military site twice.

He rejected claims that the Islamic Republic carries out nuclear activities at Parchin, and stated that at the current juncture, Iran sees no reason to increase its cooperation with the IAEA beyond the Safeguard Agreement first because the inspection of the Parchin site is not included in Iran’s commitments under the agreement and also because the country is facing increasing sanctions.
Boroujerdi said that the West should lift sanctions against Iran in return for more cooperation from the country.
If we are supposed to have more cooperation with the IAEA, Western countries should know that this is a two-way road and mutual interests are an internationally acknowledged principle,” he added.
Earlier this month, Iran had announced that if its rights to use peaceful nuclear technology are recognized, the country will be ready to remove alleged concerns about Parchin military site, stressing that Parchin is just a military site and has never been used for nuclear purposes.
“Parchin is a military zone and continues its activities and is not related to nuclear activities,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast told reporters in his weekly press conference here in Tehran .
He reminded that Iran has already granted the IAEA inspectors access to Parchin twice, yet it is ready to remove the UN nuclear watchdogs concerns about the site if its nuclear rights are fully recognized.
Mehman-Parast also stressed Tehran’s preparedness to remove IAEA’s technical concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
Mehman-Parast also reiterated that a religious edict from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei banning nuclear bombs is binding on Tehran and suggested this should defuse concerns about Iranian nuclear ambitions.
“There is nothing more important in defining the framework for our nuclear activities than the leader’s fatwa,” Mehman-Parast said. “This fatwa is our operational instruction.”
Khamenei’s fatwa, according to a September 2012 report by the Fars news agency, prohibited the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons and said they contradict “Islamic beliefs and the principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.