Russia’s envoy to the IAEA: Iran is not obliged to abandon its nuclear programme — it is its inalienable right

The permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the international organisations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, stated on Friday that Iran “is not obliged to abandon its nuclear programme,” describing this as “its inalienable right,” as the Middle East news roundup of October 2 reported.

Ulyanov made the statement in a post on the X platform, in response to statements by the U.S. envoy to the UN, Mike Waltz, that Iran was violating its nuclear obligations. “It seems the American ambassador does not know that Iran is not obliged to abandon the nuclear programme. It is its inalienable right,” the Russian ambassador wrote.

He described Washington’s position on Iran’s obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as “based on wrong assumptions about nuclear non-proliferation norms.”

Ulyanov’s statement comes two weeks after the resolution of the IAEA Board of Governors, proposed by the United States, Britain, France and Germany, which asked Director General Rafael Grossi to report Iran to the Security Council for alleged violations of non-proliferation obligations. Russia, China and Iran rejected that resolution as politicised, arguing that the provisions of UN resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 nuclear agreement, expired on October 18, 2025.

Meanwhile, IAEA inspections in Iran remain suspended: after the American and Israeli strikes in June against Iranian nuclear facilities that operated under the Agency’s supervision, inspectors were withdrawn from the country at the end of June for security reasons, and Tehran has not accepted their return without guarantees.