RUSSIA'S LAVROV CALLS IAEA'S APPROACH TO IRAN CRISIS UNPROFESSIONAL, POLITICISED

MOSCOW, March 5 (Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described on Thursday the approach of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the ongoing crisis in Iran as unprofessional and politicised.

"These sites [Iran's nuclear facilities] are inviolable under all rules, since they fall under IAEA safeguards. They were bombed, and the IAEA remained silent, saying, ‘Can I go and see what is left there?’ This is an unprofessional approach, a politicised approach.

“But my point is that now, when the IAEA has been distributing its latest reports, it is also trying to rewrite history. And the new aggression we are witnessing now is also in the same vein," Lavrov said during an embassy roundtable discussion, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti.

Iran and Russia sought the agency's view on the US bombing of safeguarded sites but received no response, the minister said.

Russia does not understand the IAEA's role nor that of its secretariat, since "never, not once, not anywhere, not in any IAEA report," has there been any suggestion that Iran might be pursuing a nuclear weapon, Lavrov said.

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched strikes on targets in Iran, including in Tehran, causing damage and civilian casualties. Iran retaliated with strikes against Israeli territory, as well as against US military bases across the Middle East.

--BERNAMA-SPUTNIK/RIA NOVOSTI