Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani Abbasi-Davani
Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani Abbasi-DavaniReuters

Iran has accused the United Nations' nuclear agency of sharing its classified information with Israel.

Javad Jahangirzadeh, a member of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, accused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of disclosing “too much” information about Iran's nuclear development activities.

The Iranian lawmaker claimed on Iran's English-language Press TV that IAEA head Yukiya “Amano's repeated trips to Tel Aviv and asking the Israeli officials' views about Iran's nuclear activities indicates that Iran's nuclear information has been disclosed to the Zionist regime and other enemies of the Islamist Republic.”

Using the claim to provide a pretext for the Islamic Republic to cut ties with the nuclear agency, Jahangirzadeh said, If the agency's actions lead to Iran cutting cooperation with this international body, all responsibility will be with the IAEA director general.”

In a similar vein, last week Iran's Head of Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani Abbasi-Davani claimed that “terrorists” may have infiltrated the IAEA. He made the claim during a speech during the 56th IAEA General Conference at the United Nations agency headquarters in Vienna on September 17.

The Islamic Republic has been seeking an excuse to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Ali Larijani, who previously served as the country's nuclear agency chief, has expressed doubts about the benefits of remaining as a member of the organization.

Nevertheless, the parliament's influence in such matters is limited at best; the decision on foreign policy and nuclear activities rests with Iran's Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khameini.

Israel has stated repeatedly that it will not allow Iran to complete its suspected drive towards creation of an atomic weapon of mass destruction. Intelligence officials from a number of Western nations, including the United States as well as Israel, have said openly that concrete evidence exists to show Iran's nuclear development activities are aimed at military purposes, and not being carried out simply for peaceful domestic projects as Iranian leaders have claimed.

A top Iranian leader admitted Saturday that a conflict is likely to develop with Israel sometime in the near future.

General Mohammad Ali Jafari told the top echelon of the Revolutionary Guards, which he commands, that “the shameful and cancerous tumour that is Israel is seeking war against us, but it is not known when that war will happen. They now consider war as the only way to confront us, but they are so stupid that their (U.S.) masters should stop them.” Jafari was quite emphatic that a war was nearly inevitable.