Iran body demands end to spot inspections

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Oct. 16 – A key Majlis (Parliament) committee approved on Sunday a resolution demanding Iran end its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under the Additional Protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 16 – A key Majlis (Parliament) committee approved on Sunday a resolution demanding Iran end its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under the Additional Protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Under the resolution passed by the National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, the hard-line government would also have to provide a report to the Majlis regarding countries which have ties to Iran but which voted against the Islamic Republic in the recent resolution passed by the IAEA Board of Governors.

Under the Additional Protocol, Iran must give international inspectors unfettered access to the country’s nuclear sites at short notice; however Tehran considers military sites as off-limits to inspections. In the past, international inspectors had reported many cases of Iranian officials barring access to sensitive sites or making a variety of excuses to delay visits for a long time.

Late September, Iran’s parliament, dominated by ultra-Islamist allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, voted overwhelmingly for a bill that, once approved, would put an end to spot inspection of suspected nuclear sites in Iran by United Nations inspectors.

Of 231 Majlis deputies present at the vote, an overwhelming majority 162 voted in favour of the resolution forbidding the IAEA from carrying out spot inspections at Iran’s nuclear plants.