TEHRAN – A senior Iranian lawmaker has said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is seeking concessions from Iran through a non-technical approach. 

The lawmaker, Alireza Salimi, who is a member of Parliament’s presiding board, told ICANA that the UN nuclear watchdog deals with Iran from a political perspective. “The Agency and European countries do not have a legal approach to the nuclear case, and this case has become an excuse for demanding excessive demands and concessions.”

He added, “They have admitted many times that Iran's nuclear case is not a problem, but they want to influence the public opinion of the world by removing Iran's nuclear activity from the technical path and after that they want to exert extra pressure on Iran.”

Salimi noted, “Iran does not want to be subordinate to others. The fact is that for many scientific activities in the future, we need nuclear technologies. The whole world has to move in this direction, even food security and energy security depend on nuclear energy.”

He said, “Westerners want Iran not to have independence in the fields of medicine and energy. In their own words, they want to contain Iran.”

The lawmaker continued, “The West bombards public opinion with the leverage of its media to show the reality in a different way. However, I believe that we should move in the direction of nuclear activities with independence of opinion to secure the interests of the country and the people.”