A new team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will arrive in Iran next week to conduct regular inspections on the country's nuclear sites, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview that the upcoming inspections would be taking place just on the basis of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"Despite the March resolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has not suspended its cooperation with the agency and the IAEA inspectors have paid regular visits to the country," Soltaniyeh said.

He referred to the IAEA's decision on March 8 to hand over files of the Iranian nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council.

After three weeks of heated bargains, the 15-member Security Council on March 29 approved a non-binding presidential statement, asking Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities in 30 days.

Iran has denounced the involvement of the Security Council, vowing never to give in to pressures and bullies.

As to the statement of the Security Council, Soltaniyeh said that it "stressed that the IAEA is responsible to probe into Iran's nuclear program since there is no legal base for the Security Council to discuss Iran's case".

"Iran's nuclear dossier has not been referred to the U.N. Security Council and the IAEA is still responsible to probe into the case," he stressed.

Soltaniyeh further re-promised that there would be "no halt with regards to" Iran's commitments to the IAEA.

The IAEA's handover of Iran's file was based on its resolution on Feb. 4 to report Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council.

In retaliation to the IAEA resolution, Iran has downgraded its cooperation with the IAEA to the extent as just required by the NPT, barring snap inspections and resumed small-scale uranium enrichment.

Source: Xinhua