US’ Pompeo slams Iran ‘intimidation’ of nuclear inspector as ‘outrageous’

The top US diplomat said Iran ‘detained’ the inspector, who the International Atomic Energy Agency has said had been briefly prevented from leaving

Iran said it had cancelled the inspector’s accreditation after she triggered an alarm last week at the entrance to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Photo: DPA

Published: 11:18pm, 9 Nov 2019Updated: 11:17pm, 9 Nov 2019

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday slammed Tehran’s treatment of an inspector with the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency last week as “an outrageous and unwarranted act of intimidation”.

The top US diplomat said Iran “detained” the inspector, who the International Atomic Energy Agency has said had been briefly prevented from leaving Iran.

Iran said on Thursday it had cancelled the inspector’s accreditation after she triggered an alarm last week at the entrance to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant.

The alarm during a check at the entrance to the plant in central Iran had raised concerns that she could be carrying a “suspect product” on her, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said in a statement posted online.

A representative of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation speaks with local journalists inside of the Fordow nuclear facility in Qom province. Photo: EPA

As a result, she was denied entry, it added, without specifying whether anything had been found in her possession.

Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA Kazem Gharib Abadi told reporters after a special agency meeting in Vienna that after setting off the alarms on October 28, the woman “sneaked out” to the bathroom while waiting for a more thorough inspection with a detector that can find a range of explosive materials.