IRAN’S PARLIAMENT HAS voted in favour of suspending the country’s cooperation with the international watchdog agency that oversees nuclear energy. 

The vote to suspend the relationship with the UN-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is a direct consequence of the Israeli and US bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities over the course of the last two weeks. 

Iran’s national security council now has to approve the move for the suspension to go ahead. 

“The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction,” Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to state TV.

“The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend its cooperation with the IAEA until the security of the nuclear facilities is guaranteed.”

Iranian MPs chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” after the vote, state TV reported.

Iran had already voiced sharp criticism of the IAEA for not condemning Israel’s attacks. 

Yesterday, following the implementation of a fragile ceasefire, IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said that “resuming cooperation with the IAEA is key to a successful diplomatic agreement to finally resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities”, while proposing to meet with Iran’s foreign minister “soon”. 

“As I have repeatedly stated – before and during the conflict – nuclear facilities should never be attacked due to the very real risk of a serious radiological accident,” Grossi said.

A suspension of cooperation with the IAEA would bring an end to watchdog inspections of Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, which were targeted by US and Israeli strikes. 

A breaking off of relations with the IAEA would also present a major obstacle to any future negotiations between Iran and Western states over the future of its nuclear programme, beyond the damage already done to those prospects by the US joining Israel’s attacks. 

While President Donald Trump had said the US bombing “obliterated” three of Iran’s nuclear sites, a leaked intelligence report has indicated the strikes only set the country’s progress back by around six months. 

Israel’s military said today that the programme had been delayed by “several years”. 

Iran has not been shown to be developing nuclear weapons, despite claims by Israel, the White House and many European countries. 

A US intelligence report in March of this year concluded that Iran was not seeking to develop nuclear weapons. 

With reporting from AFP

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