Iran says it subjected female inspectors to inappropriate searches

A cleaning staff speaks before a news conference attended by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi during an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria on September 13, 2021. Tehran, Sept 14 Reuters - On Tuesday the U.N. nuclear watchdog described as inappropriate incidents in Iran involving its inspectors in which diplomats say security staff subjected female inspectors to inappropriate searches that the United States is calling harassment.

In a first case this year, a worker had to be subjected to an unnecessary search by security staff in the Natanz nuclear site, diplomats who follow International Atomic Energy Agency said.

Details of the episode in June remain unclear as does the number of repeat incidents since at Natanz where an explosion and power cut that Iran has blamed on Israel damaged machines in its underground uranium enrichment plant in April. In recent months, there have been some incidents related to security checks of agency inspectors at one Iranian facility, the IAEA said in a statement issued in response to a Wall Street Journal report on the episodes.

The IAEA, which treats details of inspections as confidential, did not say the inspectors' gender or specify what happened.

The Agency immediately and firmly raised this issue with Iran to explain in very clear and unambiguous terms that such security-related incidents involving Agency staff are unacceptable and must not happen again, said the IAEA.

Iran has offered explanations related to reinforced security procedures following events at one of their facilities. In the end, such exchange between an Iran and the United Arab Emirates has put a hold on the Agency for more incidents. Tehran's Ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, said on Twitter: Security measures at nuclear facilities in Iran are, reasonably, tightened. The IAEA inspectors have gradually come up with new rules and regulations. It is not the first time there have been tensions between the IAEA and Iran over access to Natanz and the treatment of female inspectors.

In 2019, the first time in Iran, for the first time, briefly confiscated and held the travel papers of a female inspector. Tehran later said it had been concerned she might be carrying suspicious material After the apparent attack in April, Iran restricted inspectors' access to the main, underground enrichment plant there citing security concerns - a standoff that lasted until July. IAEA inspectors continue to experience inappropriate harassment at nuclear facilities, the United States said in a position paper to other countries on the IAEA Board of Governors meeting this week.

Reuters’s report added: Harassment of IAEA inspector is absolutely unacceptable.