Iran says cooperation with nuke watchdog ‘irrelevant’

Iran’s top diplomat says cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog is “no longer relevant” and European powers that backed the reimposition of international sanctions on the Islamic Republic will have a diminished role in future talks.

“The Cairo agreement is no longer relevant for our cooperation” with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says, referring to a September deal with the UN agency.

Araghchi says Tehran’s “decision regarding cooperation with the agency will be announced,” without elaborating, while adding there is still room for diplomacy.

The Cairo deal had set up a framework to resume cooperation and allow the watchdog to inspect Iranian sites, after Tehran suspended cooperation following Israeli and US strikes on its key nuclear sites in June.

But Iran said it would stop cooperating once Britain, France, and Germany — signatories to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal — triggered the return of the UN sanctions over Tehran’s non-compliance.

“The three European countries thought they had a leverage in their hands, threatening to implement a snapback,” Araghchi says during a meeting with foreign diplomats in Tehran.

“Now they have used this lever and seen the results… the three European countries have definitely diminished their role and almost eliminated the justification for negotiations with them.”

He adds that the European trio “will have a much smaller role than in the past” in any upcoming diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear dossier.