‘Restrictions on IAEA inspections in Iran require approval of higher authorities’

Tehran, Nov 30 : Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that any restrictions on the international monitoring of the countrys nuclear program require the approval of "higher instances".

"With regard to access (to Irans nuclear facilities), we will make sure that it remains within its defined and normal limits," Xinhua news agency quoted Kamalvandi as saying in a statement on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Irans parliament promoted a bill, seeking among other measures to stop all the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections in Iran beyond the requirements of the Non-Proliferation Treatys (NPT) Additional Protocol.The bill was given "double-urgency" status after Irans top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated on November 27, but Kamalvandi said that hostile attacks should not be generally linked to the IAEA inspections of Iranian facilities.

The spokesman did not specify which "instances" he was referring to, but every bill in Iran requires the ratification of the Guardian Council to become law, and according to the countrys Constitution, it is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who "determines the overall policy" of the country, "after consultation with the Expediency Council".