Iran says it is “ready to cooperate” with the United Nations “more than ever,” but as usual, its officials used cagey language.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi issued a statement Sunday saying the Islamic Republic is ready to cooperate “further” with the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“We are prepared to cooperate with the agency more than ever, if the agency balances its approach and complies with its statues and the safeguard agreements,” Salehi said, according to the ISNA news agency.
“If that is the case, we are prepared to cooperate much the same as before and even further with the agency,” he added.
The statement came after the IAEA board of governors approved a resolution Friday that said it was “essential for Iran and the Agency to intensity their dialogue.” The resolution pointedly called on Iran to “comply fully and without delay with its obligations under relevant resolutions of the U.N. Security Council.”
IAEA head Yukiya Amano noted that although he had sent a letter to Tehran on November 2 requesting Iran's cooperation in allowing an agency mission to visit nuclear sites in the country to determine whether, in fact, the country is engaged in building atomic weapons, there had been no response.
In his address to the agency's board of governors on Thursday, Amano called on Tehran to “clarify the issues” detailed in the IAEA report and to “engage substantively with the agency without delay.”