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IAEA deputy director general resigns

01 July 2010 17:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms the resignation of a top nuclear inspector in charge of the UN agency’s efforts to ensure global non-proliferation, APA reports quoting presstv.ir website.

IAEA Deputy Director General and head of Safeguards Department, Olli Heinonen, is stepping down this August for personal reasons, IAEA spokesman Gill Tudor said on Thursday.

Heinonen, appointed to the post by former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, has been working with the agency for nearly three decades.

The 63-year-old was also in charge of verifying the non-diversion of Iran and Syria’s nuclear programs over Western allegations that they may not be entirely aimed at civilian applications of the technology.

Last week, Iran barred two IAEA inspectors from entering the country, protesting that they had leaked information to the media before the official issuance of the Agency’s latest report on Iran’s nuclear program. The inspectors concerned were not named.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) criticized the IAEA report as "unreal in its entirety."

Amid intensified US-led efforts to pressure Iran into abandoning its enrichment program, Iran, Brazil and Turkey issued a joint declaration on May 17, as a response to an earlier IAEA proposal for nuclear fuel swap.

Washington and its European allies cold-shouldered the declaration and persuaded resisting veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and China, into imposing a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran.

Tehran rejects the Western allegations, arguing that as an IAEA member and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) it has the right to peaceful nuclear energy.