The United States, France, Germany and Britain welcomed in a joint statement on Friday the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors' decision ordering Iran to cooperate urgently with the agency's investigation into traces of uranium found at three undisclosed sites.
On the other hand, Tehran confirmed that the agency is aware of its nuclear activities.
The Quartet statement stressed that the IAEA's adoption of this decision came in response to Iran's insufficient cooperation with it on issues related to its legal obligations under the Safeguards Agreement of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
He added that the resolution constituted a "clear message" to Iran that should urge it to fulfill "urgently" its obligations in the nuclear file.
This is the second resolution being adopted this year, after a resolution last June, which Russia and China voted against.
US Ambassador Laura Holgate said that Iran should know that if it fails to cooperate to resolve these issues, the council will have to take further action.
Iranian condemnation
On the other hand, Iran denounced the decision, describing it as political, saying that it would have no results.
Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Mohsen Naziri, said that the political goals of the authors of this anti-Iranian resolution will not be achieved, but it may affect the constructive relations between Tehran and the agency.
For his part, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization confirmed today, Friday, that the International Atomic Energy Agency is aware of all Tehran's activities.
The semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) quoted Mohammad Eslami as saying that Iran has not done and will not do anything that the agency is not aware of.
He added, "All our activities are carried out within the framework of the regulations, and there is no problem with the guarantees that are the criterion for our cooperation with the agency."
Settling the so-called "safeguards" investigations is crucial to the UN agency, which seeks to ensure that parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty do not secretly divert nuclear material to make weapons.
Last June, Iran removed additional monitoring equipment from the International Atomic Energy Agency, including surveillance cameras installed under the 2015 agreement.
Besides stalled talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, negotiations between the major powers and Tehran to revive the nuclear deal signed in 2015 have reached an impasse.
After the United States withdrew from the agreement under President Donald Trump in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, the latter responded by gradually retracting most of its commitments.
Joe Biden's arrival at the White House allowed the process to resume and revived hopes of reaching an agreement last August, but dialogue has stalled since then.