TEHRAN - Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to the Vienna-based international organizations, has said that the spirit of cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Tehran prevailed.

“It’s clear from leaked #IAEA reports that #Iran has started to provide access to locations specified by the Agency. Those who hoped to arrange a crisis around this issue must feel very disappointed. The spirit of cooperation between the IAEA and Tehran prevailed,” Ulyanov tweeted on Saturday.

According to an IAEA report seen by AFP on Friday, Iran has granted the agency’s inspectors access to one of the two sites it agreed last week for verification purposes.

“Iran provided Agency inspectors access to the location to take environmental samples. The samples will be analyzed by laboratories that are part of the Agency’s network,” said the report.

An inspection at the second site will take place “later in September 2020,” the report said.

The 35-member IAEA board passed a resolution in June, demanding access to two old places they claim nuclear work may have been done there.

China and Russia opposed the resolution and seven countries including South Africa, Niger, Mongolia, Thailand, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Pakistan and India also abstained to vote.

France, Britain, and Germany, the three European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal, had submitted the draft resolution to the IAEA board. 

NA/PA