Iran will end its participation in international nuclear inspections if UN sanctions are reimposed in a vote at the General Assembly, stated Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (UNSC), during an interview with PBS’s FRONTLINE published on 26 September.
“If ‘snapback’ mechanisms are enforced, we will end our participation with the IAEA,” Larijani stated during the wide-ranging interview, making reference to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“We have pursued every option and mechanism available for solving this conflict in a peaceful way,” he affirmed.
The 30-day countdown for the UN to reimpose “snapback” sanctions originating with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal signed in 2015 is set to expire this weekend.
The deal gave Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for oversight of its nuclear program to ensure it was not producing a nuclear weapon. But a clause in the deal stipulated that sanctions could “snap back” under certain circumstances.
The US abandoned the JCPOA in 2015, while Britain, France, and Germany initiated a 30-day process to activate the snapback mechanism and restore all UNSC sanctions against Iran last month.
Iran says it has fulfilled its obligations under the JCPOA, while criticizing the US and the European troika for failing to fulfill their obligations under the agreement. The US unilaterally abandoned the JCPOA in 2018.
On Friday, the UNSC is expected to vote on a proposed resolution that aims to extend the existing diplomatic framework for resolving disputes related to the JCPOA and UNSC Resolution 2231 and thereby avoid snapback sanctions from being reimposed.
Tehran’s willingness to cooperate with the IAEA has been in doubt since Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran in June amid nuclear negotiations with Washington. US warplanes attacked three Iranian nuclear sites.
Iranian officials criticized the IAEA for passing a resolution accusing Tehran of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations on 12 June. The officials said the resolution paved the way politically for Israel to attack Iran the following day. The US and Israeli attacks killed 935 Iranians.
Iran rejected IAEA chief Raphael Grossi’s request to visit the nuclear sites after the US bombing, fearing he was working on behalf of the US and Israel.
Larijani told FRONTLINE that while Iran had no intention of pursuing a nuclear weapon, the unprovoked US and Israeli strikes in June had made negotiations a “farce.”
He added, “Iran’s nuclear program can never be destroyed. Because once you have discovered a technology, they can’t take the discovery away. It’s as if you are the inventor of some machine, and the machine is stolen from you. You can still make it again.”
He warned US President Donald Trump against further attacks on Iran, stressing that the Islamic Republic would never surrender.
At the same time, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi stated that Friday’s vote at the UNSC on the draft resolution introduced by Russia and China represents a “final chance to defuse tensions” over Europe’s effort to activate the snapback mechanism.
In a meeting with representatives of 10 non-permanent Security Council members at the UN headquarters in New York, Gharibabadi stressed that each member of the Security Council “must either reaffirm their commitment to diplomacy and fulfill their duty to maintain international peace and security, or fully accept accountability for disrupting the diplomatic path and its consequences.”
He criticized recent claims by US and European officials about their commitment to diplomacy as “unrealistic and insincere.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also commented on the issue on Friday, affirming that Iran remains steadfast in fulfilling its legitimate rights to the peaceful use of nuclear energy in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (NPT), and that it is prepared to continue good faith negotiations without compromising on its sovereign rights and security.