Iran Entitled to Respond to West’s Hostile Moves: Russian Envoy

In a written interview with Tasnim, Mikhail Ulyanov elaborated on Russia’s view about the course of cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

He also provided Russia’s perspective on the recent move by France, the UK, Germany, and the US, which pushed for a new resolution against Iran that was adopted by the IAEA’s Board of Governors on November 21.

What follows is the text of the interview:

Tasnim: Why do you think the E3 and the US decided to draft a resolution against Iran before the Director General of the IAEA returned from Iran, and without considering the agreements between Iran and the IAEA?

Ulyanov: I think that this is a demonstration of political shortsightedness of E3 and the US. It only shows that those countries have strong political agenda against Iran, they believe that they have to implement this agenda even irrespective of the overall broader developments such as IAEA Director General’s visit to Iran and his genuine efforts to establish constructive dialogue with the new Iranian administration in order to resolve outstanding issues and ensure solid and sustainable cooperation with Tehran.

It is even more regrettable that E3 and the USA decided to move forward with the resolution despite the fact that Director General Grossi brought concrete agreements from Iran, which were reflected in his relevant reports to the IAEA Board of Governors.

Tasnim: According to your statements in response to the US and the EU3's move to submit the resolution, why does Russia oppose this resolution?

Ulyanov: We oppose this resolution for two main reasons.

First, it is politically untimely and irrelevant. It is fraught with dangerous consequences that could undermine cooperation between Iran and the Agency as well as to bring escalation around the Iranian nuclear issue in general. The Middle East region is overwhelmed with conflicts right now and it is unfortunate that co-authors of the resolution want to put more gasoline into the fire. It is even more strange that resolution came up in the moment when the new Iranian administration clearly demonstrated its openness to cooperation with the Agency and to dialogue with relevant countries on the JCPOA issue.

Second, we strongly believe that this resolution and in particular the request that it contains to the IAEA Director General to prepare a comprehensive and updated assessment on Iran’s nuclear program is extremely detrimental to the IAEA Safeguards mechanism. Basically, it demonstrates that the majority of the Western countries in the Board can bypass all Safeguards principles and regulations and impose on the Director General its politically motivated agenda. Virtually, any country can become a victim of such approach while Safeguards mechanism is supposed to be transparent, objective and impartial.

Tasnim: How influential do you think this anti-Iranian resolution will be on the future relations and interactions between Iran and IAEA?

Ulyanov: Iran by all means has the right to respond to such politically motivated moves by Western countries. It has already been done by the Iranian government in terms of its plans to expand its enrichment-related capacities. We hope however that Iran would consider it reasonable not to harm the cooperation with the IAEA, including on the unresolved issues, based on the understandings reached during the recent visit to Iran of the IAEA Director General.

Russia on its part stands ready to support further strong dialogue between Iran and the Agency.