In a joint statement issued by the Council of the European Union, the 25-state block announced, “The full suspension is essential if a process of dialogue on long-term arrangements is to continue on the basis of the Paris Agreement”.
The EU statement, which had the backing of non-member European states such as Iceland, Norway, and Croatia as well as Turkey, said that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, had repeatedly asked Iran to suspend all enrichment related and reprocessing activities, including conversion, which could be carried out to produce nuclear weapons.
“Long term confidence-building is needed in view of Iran’s record of breaching safeguards obligations and failure to co-operate with the IAEA over a long period of time”, the EU stated.
Iran hid its nuclear program, which the West suspects is for the production of atomic bombs, from the international community for 18 years until it was exposed by an Iranian opposition group in August 2002.
The deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Saeedi told the state-run news agency, ISNA, earlier on Wednesday that Iran “would definitely not accept a request” by the IAEA board of governors to suspend its recently started nuclear work in Isfahan.
