TEHRAN — Alireza Salimi, a member of the presiding board of the Iranian parliament, has strongly criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency for being silent on a military deal between Australia, the UK and U.S for building nuclear submarines.

The trilateral partnership, dubbed AUKUS, was signed on September 15. It was meant to provide Australia with nuclear-propulsion technology for submarines. 

Some world leaders and nuclear physicists have warned that the nuclear fuel may be diverted to nuclear weapons.

Frank Von Hippel, who he was responsible for national security issues in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 1993 to 1994, tells the Tehran Times that “U.S. and UK reactors are fueled with weapon-grade (93.5%-U-235) uranium.”

Hippel, a nuclear physicist, says, “I have argued for almost 30 years that this is a terrible example for the U.S. to set for the world.”
 
MP Salimi questioned the UN nuclear watchdog’s silence over this sensitive deal, asking, “Why are they silent about the deal”?

He asked why IAEA director Rafael Grossi, who becomes too sensitive over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program when some controversial people publish a few reports about Iran’s nuclear program, is watching the issue of the nuclear submarines in “total silence and has become a spectator?”

What does this silence mean? he said in an interview with the Fars news agency.
 
“Are there still ‘awakened conscience’ in the world and a vigilant and independent media that would cry out against the apparent proliferation of nuclear weapons?” he added. 

He also questioned the sincerity of the people watching the AUKUS pact in utter silence.

France's foreign minister expressed "total incomprehension" at the move, while the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, complained that Europe had not been consulted.

France will lose a nearly $100 billion deal to build diesel submarines for Australia under the terms of the initiative, which will see the U.S. and Britain help Canberra construct nuclear-powered ones.

The pact created a huge controversy all around the world, from China to the EU and the United Arab Emirates.

The senior Iranian MP went on to say that the IAEA is silent in the face of the Zionist regime’s nuclear weapons program.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Israel has 90 nuclear weapons.

He added, “The IAEA is silent on the unconventional laboratories of some other countries, such as France, Britain, the United States, and some of their satellite states, but it is quick to take action against the countries opposed to the U.S.

Salimi said that the IAEA should get out of its current position and rebuild itself.

“Other international institutions should fly and reach the peak of independence, and they need to get out of this horrible mindset they have created for themselves, which is only the thoughts of the CIA dictated to them,” the parliamentarian said.

He added that unfortunately the IAEA has behaved in a way that it is seen in the world as an agent of the CIA and Mossad.

The senior parliamentarian underscored, “Nuclear spies in the form of the IAEA inspectors come to Iran regularly and have taken our information and left us nothing secret. Why should the IAEA become a spy agent, while the world's public opinion of spies is a hateful one?”

He added that independent agencies strongly despise the IAEA’s espionage behavior.

SA/PA