TEHRAN — The Iranian ambassador to the Vienna-based international organizations has warned against any act of sabotage against Iran’s nuclear facilities, saying such acts should be condemned by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“We warn against any such reckless and dangerous adventurism,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on Thursday. “Such malicious acts should be condemned strongly by the Agency and its Member States.”

Gharibabadi made the remarks in his report to the seasonal session of the Board of Directors of the IAEA.

In addition to protecting its nuclear facilities in any way it deems necessary, Iran reserves its right to take appropriate actions against such threats, he said.

He was referring to a July 2 incident that took place at the Natanz nuclear facility. At the time, Iran didn’t disclose the cause of the incident.

Late last month, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Agency Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced that the explosion was an act of “sabotage”.

“Such malicious acts should be condemned strongly by the Agency and its Member States,” Ambassador Gharibabadi says

“Security investigations confirm the sabotage [nature] of this action and what is certain is that the explosion took place in Natanz, but the security officials will announce the details of the explosion and how it took place and what materials were used in the explosion,” Behrouz Kamalvandi told the al-Alam news network on August 23.

Two weeks later, Kamalvandi said the elements and reasons behind the act of sabotage have been identified.

“The elements and reasons behind the act of sabotage at the Natanz facility have been identified, but it’s not possible to give out further information since the issue is under investigation,” he said on September 6.

In his Thursday remarks, Gharibabadi said, “I would also like to emphasize that such malicious acts will not negatively affect Iran’s nuclear program, but will only serve as an incentive to accelerate its development.”

The ambassador also said the fact that 22 percent of the IAEA’s inspections are conducted in Iran shows that the Islamic Republic has the most transparent peaceful nuclear program among the IAEA’s member states.

“Although the Agency is supposed to focus on the current activities, Iran has voluntarily accepted the request by the Agency to address possible safeguards issues,” he said, according to IRNA.

He also touched upon the United States’ efforts to destroy the Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying since the few adversaries of the JCPOA could not find any excuse to destroy the JCPOA and Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA, “they have tried in vain to build their arguments upon unfounded, baseless allegations.”

“Nevertheless, it is upon the Board of Governors and the Agency’s Secretariat to show necessary wisdom and foresight to avoid getting entangled in their mischief,” he pointed out.

The ambassador said that for many years, the U.S. and Israel have been speaking about the possibility of an Iranian nuclear bomb and Iran’s so-called clandestine nuclear activities to divert the attention of the international community and the IAEA.

“Despite this, so far, there is no news about such fantasy bomb, rather Iran has shown to be the most transparent country with accepting more than one fifth of the total inspections of the Agency,” he explained.

“Iran has also expressed its strong position against nuclear weapons and the necessity of their total elimination,” he added. 

MH/PA