U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley traveled overseas Wednesday on the hunt for information about Iran’s nuclear program, a hunt that Iran is trying to make difficult.
Haley flew to Vienna, Austria, to meet with officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Her trip was part of an initiative by the Trump administration to review the Iran nuclear deal signed by former President Barack Obama.
On the campaign trail, now-President Donald Trump railed against the agreement, which lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for it halting its nuclear program. Trump has called it “the worst deal ever negotiated.”
However, the Trump administration has allowed the deal to stay in place, while studying if Iran has violated its terms. Haley’s trip to the IAEA was a part of that process.
Iran’s foreign minister wrote a letter to nuclear inspectors warning them not to share any information with Haley that the United States is not entitled to under the deal.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Haley and the United States were “openly hostile to the (deal) and determined to undermine and destroy it,” according to the Washington Examiner
Haley said she only wants to question IAEA officials. She also hit back at what she said were Iranian efforts to block nuclear inspectors from visiting certain sites.
“Why would they say that if they had nothing to hide? Why wouldn’t they let the IAEA go there?” Haley told Reuters.
Since the deal went into effect, the United States has slapped new sanctions on Iran over its missile development program.
“If you look … at past Iranian behavior, what you’ve seen is there have been covert actions at military sites, at universities, things like that,” Haley said.
International inspectors “have the authority to look at military sites now,” she said. “They have the authority to look at any suspicious sites now. It’s just are they doing it?”
Source » thestate