"Iran reserves the right to take any necessary action to defend its interests, people, and sovereignty," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in reaction to recent statements of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The Iranian parliament has voted to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency until the safety and security of our nuclear activities are guaranteed," Araqchi said.
"This decision is a direct result of Rafael Grossi's unfortunate role in covering up the fact that the agency had officially declared all past issues closed a decade ago," he said.
"With this biased action, he directly paved the way for the passage of a politically motivated resolution against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors, and also facilitated illegal Israeli and American attacks on Iranian nuclear sites," the Iranian top diplomat said.
Furthermore, Rafael Grossi has, astonishingly and contrary to his professional duties, refused to explicitly condemn such flagrant violations of the Agency's safeguards regulations and its Statute, he added.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General are fully responsible for this disgusting situation. Rafael Grossi's insistence on visiting bombed sites under the guise of safeguards monitoring is absurd and may even be maliciou, he said.
Iran reserves the right to take any necessary action to defend its interests, people, and sovereignty, he added.
MNA