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EU Urges Iran to Immediately Reconsider Barring of IAEA Inspectors

The Bushehr Nuclear Facility in southern Iran (AFP).
The Bushehr Nuclear Facility in southern Iran (AFP).
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EU Urges Iran to Immediately Reconsider Barring of IAEA Inspectors

The Bushehr Nuclear Facility in southern Iran (AFP).
The Bushehr Nuclear Facility in southern Iran (AFP).

The European Union urged Iran on Sunday to reconsider its decision to bar multiple International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors assigned to oversee Tehran's atomic activities, noting that the bloc was “highly concerned” by the move.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday that some members of their team no longer had permission to inspect Iran's nuclear arsenal.

It said Iran's “disproportionate and unprecedented” move would seriously hamper its work.

Iranian media and a Western diplomat said the decision concerned eight inspectors, all from France and Germany.

“The European Union is highly concerned by the ... decision by Iran to withdraw the official designation of several experienced IAEA inspectors to monitor and verify its nuclear programme,” the spokesman for EU foreign affairs Peter Stano said in a statement.

“Particularly worrying is the direct and severe impact of this decision on the agency's ability to conduct its verification activities, which includes the monitoring of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPoA],” he added.

“The EU urges Iran to reconsider its decision without delay.”

The objective of the 2015 agreement was to restrict Iran's nuclear activities in return for alleviating international sanctions.

However, the accord was suspended due to the unilateral withdrawal by the US under president Donald Trump's administration in 2018.

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Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest.

Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

The street rallies organized by the trio precipitated a police crackdown and days of running clashes between officers and protesters that killed at least 201 people, according to an AFP tally of hospital and police data.

Islam earlier this week told AFP he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries sustained during an earlier round of police detention.

Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before home minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.

"They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them," he said.

"That's why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action."

Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.

Days of mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide internet blackout and imposed a curfew to restore order.

- 'Carried out raids' -

The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organized by Students Against Discrimination that had remained largely peaceful before last week.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.

His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, told AFP earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Police have arrested at least 4,500 people since the unrest began.

"We've carried out raids in the capital and we will continue the raids until the perpetrators are arrested," Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker told AFP.

"We're not arresting general students, only those who vandalized government properties and set them on fire."