Iran Denounces IAEA Failure to Close Detonator Probe
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should now close its investigation of the issue of Iran’s development of high explosives detonators.
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano has thus far refused to close the file on the issue, which is the first one Iran and the IAEA had agreed to resolve as part of an agreement on the question of what the Agency calls “possible military dimensions” of the Iranian nuclear program.
In an interview with the Inter Press Service, Salehi emphasized that the IAEA should have ended the investigation of the detonator issue in keeping with an understanding that had been reached between the two sides on procedures for carrying out the February 2014 “Framework for Cooperation” agreement.
Referring to IAEA officials, Salehi said, “To the best of my knowledge and the best of my information, they have come up with the conclusion that what Iran has said is consistent with their findings.”
Salehi said the IAEA had agreed to do the same thing in regard to the issues included in the “Framework for Cooperation” agreement.
“We have agreed that once our explanations were enough to bring this to conclusion they would have to close that issue,” Salehi said.
“They should not keep the issue open,” he added.
The most recent IAEA report, dated May 23, confirmed that Iran had shown the agency documents supporting the Iranian contention that it had carried out exploding bridge-wire (EBW) experiments for civilian applications rather than as part of an alleged nuclear weapon program.
