Tehran, Iran – Iran says it has not suspended its commitments under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), but as mediated talks to end the war with the United States continue, broad international inspections of Iranian sites remain far off.
Following US and Israeli attacks on Iran's main nuclear facilities in and assassinations of senior leaders, Iranian authorities have increasingly discussed the possibility of abandoning the international treaty and building a nuclear bomb.
US President Donald Trump's threats to attack the underground Pickaxe Mountain complex near the Natanz nuclear facility and other sensitive sites have only emboldened hardliners in Tehran to demand a shift in the country's nuclear doctrine – under assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, nuclear weapons were officially forbidden.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei emphasised to reporters during a news conference in Tehran on Monday that the Islamic Republic remains committed to the NPT, despite restricting cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog.
"Other parties have imposed conditions, namely the attacks by the US and Zionist regime against our nuclear facilities which have caused issues concerning implementation of safeguards commitments," he said, in reference to Israel.
"As long as this situation continues, we cannot act like normal circumstances in our cooperation with the agency," Baghaei said about the IAEA, while also renewing Tehran's criticism of its director, Rafael Grossi.
But the spokesman confirmed that new IAEA inspections were conducted days earlier at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. (Read More)
