US says Iran’s demands over its nuclear activity are ‘impossible to accept’

Amid talk of the potential of reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the US lashes out at Tehran over its history of covert nuclear activity and refusal to cooperate with inspectors.

“Last September, Iran ended hopes that a mutual return to JCPOA implementation may be near by demanding that safeguards obligations be implemented differently in Iran than in all other states with a comprehensive safeguards agreement,” Laura Holgate, the US ambassador to the UN’s international organizations, tells a hearing of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

“As we know, such demands are simply impossible to accept,” adds Holgate. “Nowhere in the world would IAEA inspectors ignore possible undeclared nuclear material and activities, and the detection of nuclear material particles at multiple undeclared locations.”

Holgate adds that Iran “continues to expand its nuclear activities far beyond JCPOA limits,” calling on it to “cease its nuclear provocations that pose grave proliferation risks.”