Mohammad Eslami said in a TV interview late on Friday that Iran had submitted a letter to the IAEA explaining incorrect issues raised in a recent report by one of the agency’s inspectors during a visit to Ferdow.
Eslami said, however, that IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi had decided to disclose the wrong claims raised in the report in a confidential letter sent to the media on February 1.
“This behavior is unprofessional and is unacceptable and we hope that the agency’s director general stops such practices because this is not acceptable for his and the agency’s credibility,” he said.
Through the report, the IAEA on Wednesday accused Iran of making an undeclared change to the interconnection between the two clusters of advanced machines enriching uranium at the country's Fordow nuclear facility.
Earlier on Thursday, Iran’s nuclear chief Eslami lamented that the report had been produced based on a mistake made by an IAEA inspector during an unannounced visit to the site. "The agency’s position is regrettable," said Eslami, noting, "We immediately provided the [due] explanation [to the IAEA]…the agency’s inspector found out that they had made a mistake."
The Islamic Republic started enriching uranium to the purity level of 60% at Fordow in November, describing the move as a strong message to an earlier anti-Iran resolution, which had been initiated by Washington and the European troika and passed by the IAEA’s Board of Governors.
The resolution had criticized Iran for, what it called, a lack of cooperation with the agency, something that Tehran has invariably rejected as untrue.
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