TEHRAN – The Foreign Ministry spokesman has said that the remarks by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano about Iran’s nuclear program are made under political pressure.

“Making ambiguous or two-edged statements and raising old issues such as alleged studies without presenting any credible evidence and documents show that there is heavy political pressure on the agency and the IAEA tries to meet certain countries’ political demands,” Ramin Mehmanparast stated at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday.
Mehmanparast’s remarks came following Amano’s address to the IAEA Board of Governors meeting on Monday in which he voiced concern over Iran’s nuclear program.
Amano claimed that Iran effectively blocks the investigation into its nuclear program, adding the agency is not able to establish whether Iran’s nuclear program is entirely peaceful as Iran says or masks a covert drive to build a bomb as Western powers claim unless Iran allows the IAEA inspectors to visit its nuclear facilities.
-- Bushehr power plant working normally
Mehmanparast also denied the reports saying the Bushehr nuclear power plant has run into technical problems shortly after its initial start-up.
“As we said previously, the power plant is working normally. Experts are closely monitoring activities and highest safety standards have been met,” he said.
“The power plant will feed the national grid at the planned time,” he added.
Some Western sources have reported a major failure at the Bushehr nuclear reactor which may cause delay in connecting the plant to the national power grid.
-- Iran opposed to military intervention in Libya
On the ongoing developments in Libya and the Western governments’ attempts in the UN Security Council to enforce a no-fly zone on Libya, the spokesman said it would be better that the Western countries stop supporting the dictators instead of mulling military interventions in other countries.
Iran condemns use of violence against people and massacre of innocent civilians by the autocratic rulers and believes that the criminal actions in Libya should be stopped and the Libyan people’s right to determine their own fate should be respected, he said.
But the Western countries’ record in supporting dictators shows that their current efforts are aimed at taking advantage of the political turmoil in Libya to occupy this country on the pretext of defending the Libyans’ rights, he stated.
Iran does not approve of any kind of military intervention in Libya, he said, adding if the Westerners withdraw their support for the dictators, people themselves will determine the fate of their own countries.
-- Zionists worried about regional developments
Asked about the remarks by the Zionist regime’s officials calling for formation of a Palestinian government, Mehmanparast said that ongoing developments in the region will certainly affect the Palestine issue and such remarks show that the Zionists are concerned about these developments.
The Zionists’ approach so far has been killing Palestinians mercilessly and violating their rights and their recent stances suggest they are worried about the regional nations’ support for Palestinian, he said.
“They think they can silence the Palestinian nation’s voice and end regional nations’ support for them through making small concessions… but the peace and stability will be restored in the sacred Palestinian territories when the occupiers settling in these territories return to their homelands,” he added.