ID :
194556
Tue, 07/12/2011 - 13:54
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/194556
The shortlink copeid
FM: Iran Accepts No Precondition for Amano's Visit
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stressed that Iran, as a member state of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is entitled to the right to ask the IAEA Chief, Yukiya Amano, to pay a visit to Tehran and it, thus, accepts no preconditions in this regard.
"Amano as the Director-General of the IAEA belongs to all member countries and Iran is one of the most important members of the IAEA. Therefore, Amano is required to pay the visit like his predecessors who had paid repeated visits to Iran," Salehi told reporters upon arrival at Vienna airport on Monday night.
Referring to the invitation extended to Amano by Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi to visit Iran, Salehi said that it was "a natural issue and Amano's visit to Iran should be prerequisite-free, otherwise, the trip would lose its meaning".
Abbasi had earlier invited the UN nuclear watchdog chief to visit Iran's nuclear sites and facilities.
Following a meeting with Amano in Vienna in June on the sidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear safety conference, Abbasi announced that during his talks with the IAEA Director-General, he had invited Amano and his colleagues to a tour of Iran's nuclear facilities.
Abbasi said he had even invited Amano to visit any nuclear site he wants all throughout Iran.
"I invited Mr. Amano to come to visit anywhere they like in all our nuclear installations," he added.
On January 15 and January 16, 2011, representatives of over 140 world countries, including envoys from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Arab League, Egypt, Cuba, Syria, Algeria, Venezuela and Oman visited Natanz enrichment facility and the Arak heavy water reactor in response to Iran's invitation.
Some members of the UN Security Council and the European Union had also been invited but they decided not to send representatives.
Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world's fourth-largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic.
Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.
Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.
Iran plans to construct additional nuclear power plants to provide for the electricity needs of its growing population.
The Islamic Republic says that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA's questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.
Political observers believe that the United States has remained at loggerheads with Iran mainly over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran's nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for the other third-world countries. Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants.
"Amano as the Director-General of the IAEA belongs to all member countries and Iran is one of the most important members of the IAEA. Therefore, Amano is required to pay the visit like his predecessors who had paid repeated visits to Iran," Salehi told reporters upon arrival at Vienna airport on Monday night.
Referring to the invitation extended to Amano by Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi to visit Iran, Salehi said that it was "a natural issue and Amano's visit to Iran should be prerequisite-free, otherwise, the trip would lose its meaning".
Abbasi had earlier invited the UN nuclear watchdog chief to visit Iran's nuclear sites and facilities.
Following a meeting with Amano in Vienna in June on the sidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear safety conference, Abbasi announced that during his talks with the IAEA Director-General, he had invited Amano and his colleagues to a tour of Iran's nuclear facilities.
Abbasi said he had even invited Amano to visit any nuclear site he wants all throughout Iran.
"I invited Mr. Amano to come to visit anywhere they like in all our nuclear installations," he added.
On January 15 and January 16, 2011, representatives of over 140 world countries, including envoys from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Arab League, Egypt, Cuba, Syria, Algeria, Venezuela and Oman visited Natanz enrichment facility and the Arak heavy water reactor in response to Iran's invitation.
Some members of the UN Security Council and the European Union had also been invited but they decided not to send representatives.
Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world's fourth-largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic.
Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.
Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.
Iran plans to construct additional nuclear power plants to provide for the electricity needs of its growing population.
The Islamic Republic says that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA's questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.
Political observers believe that the United States has remained at loggerheads with Iran mainly over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran's nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for the other third-world countries. Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants.
