Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Chairman of Iranian Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi accused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) saying the agency's politically-motivated performance is the reason behind the alleged "vicious circle" in the bilateral talks.

Reacting to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano's remarks on the matter, Boroujerdi said the agency's negotiations with Iran "are going around in circles," Press TV reported.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said two days earlier that talks with Iran have been "going around in circles" -- unusually blunt criticism pointing to rising tension over suspected nuclear arms research by Tehran that has reportedly increased fears of a new Middle East war.

"Despite the intensified dialogue between the agency and Iran since January 2012... no agreement has been reached on the structured approach document. To be frank, for some time now we have been going around in circles," Amano said.

Boroujerdi said that the reason behind the vicious circle mentioned by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano is the IAEA itself.

He pointed out that the Agency makes such statements because it uses reports that lack the required transparency and are more political than technical.

Speaking about Tehran's negotiations with the P5+1 group of world powers (UN Security Council permanent member states plus Germany) , he said that the countries negotiating with Iran mostly act under US pressure.

He described Iran's nuclear energy program as highly transparent.

"No matter what the US wants, Iran is today practically considered as a member of the world's nuclear club," he said.

Meanwhile, political analyst William Beeman told Press TV that the US sway over the IAEA has increased during the tenure of incumbent Director General Yukiya Amano.

He said the IAEA has become heavily politicized, largely under pressure from the United States, while it was much more neutral under former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

The analysts pointed to IAEA's numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear energy facilities, noting, "The IAEA has in its reports continually referred to technology that 'might possibly' be used for a nuclear weapon or might 'lead to' a nuclear weapon - this is completely outside of their purview. And so the actual functioning of the IAEA is really called into question."

The Western countries and some of their allies have accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

However, Iran has strongly rejected the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.