"IAEA should soften its approach toward Iran"

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should soften its approach towards Islamic Republic of Iran, IRNA reported.

"IAEA has no other option than cooperating and interacting with the Iranian government," Salehi told reporters at the end of Sunday's cabinet meeting.

He pointed out that despite IAEA's unfair behavior toward Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran in view of its rational approach does not want to discredit IAEA more.

Referring to the fact that the IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano should come to realize Iran's good will gesture, Salehi noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran has voiced its readiness for cooperation with Iran on the condition that the cooperation falls within the framework of IAEA's regulations.

He pointed out that resolution issued against Iran lacks credibility and effectiveness.

"Amano had threatened to publish documents against Iran since a long time ago, but now that he has issued them nothing happened," Salehi added.

Noting that there was nothing new in Amano's documents and they were published before, he noted that they claimed that they were provided with some documents by some intelligence agencies which were of great value, but they gained nothing from the same.

"The non-aligned movement (NAM) questioned Amano's anti-Iran report. Amano made two big historic mistakes in his report," Salehi said.

He pointed out that IAEA will come to realize its big mistakes in the future, although IAEA staff, particularly its secretariat were not willing to release such discredited documents in the first place.

"According to IAEA charter, IAEA is not allowed to release any sort of documents and Amano acted against IAEA's regulations," the foreign minister added.

Emphasizing on the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran is pursuing establishing good relations with Amano, Salehi noted that IAEA is the only legal authority to deal with nuclear activities of its member-states and hence Iran does not want to jeopardize the issue of nuclear non-proliferation treaty by discrediting IAEA.

"We hope that in view of the recent developments, IAEA would change its attitude towards Iran's nuclear activities and adopt a fairly reasonable approach vis-à-vis Iran," he further added.


/Trend/