UN nuclear agency slams Iran for barring ‘several’ inspectors from monitoring its program

By EMILY SCHULTHEIS
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — The U.N. nuclear watchdog has harshly criticized Iran for effectively barring several of its most experienced inspectors from monitoring the country’s disputed atomic program. The International Atomic Energy Agency is tasked with monitoring a nuclear program that Western nations have long suspected is aimed at eventually developing a nuclear weapon. Iran insists the program is peaceful. Rafael Mariano Grossi is the head of the IAEA. He said Saturday that Iran had “effectively removed about one-third of the core group of the agency’s most experienced inspectors.” Iran linked the move to what it said was an attempt by the United States and three European countries to misuse the body “for their own political purposes.”