Iran calls on IAEA to end 'double standards'

TEHRAN, July 10 (Reuters): Iran's president said on Thursday the UN nuclear watchdog should drop its "double standards" if Tehran is to resume cooperation with it over the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme, Iranian state media reported.

President Masoud Pezeshkian last week enacted a law suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the IAEA said it had pulled its last remaining inspectors out of Iran.

Relations between Iran and the IAEA have worsened since the United States and Israel bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in June, saying they wanted to prevent Tehran from developing an atomic weapon. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only and denies seeking atomic weapons.

"The continuation of Iran's cooperation with the agency (IAEA) depends of the latter correcting its double standards regarding the nuclear file," state media quoted Pezeshkian as telling European Council President Antonio Costa by phone.

"Any repeated aggression (against Iran) will be met with a more decisive and regrettable response," he said.