IAEA fends off Israel pressure on Iran
France seizes Tehran assets for bomb plot
VIENNA, Oct 2, (Agencies): The UN’s nuclear watchdog Tuesday refused to “take at face value” Israel’s claims that Iran is harbouring a secret atomic warehouse, fending off pressure to inspect the allegedly suspect site.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the claim in front of the UN General Assembly last week.
Without explicitly referring to Netanyahu’s claim, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano insisted that the agency’s independence was “of paramount importance” for its work.
The IAEA “uses all safeguards-relevant information available to it but it does not take any information at face value,” Amano said in a statement.
Netanyahu accused Iran of operating a “secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran’s secret nuclear weapons programme.” He urged the IAEA to inspect the site. Amano said the IAEA would not be told how to do its work.
“All information obtained, including from third parties, is subject to rigorous review,” he said.
He said the IAEA’s work “must always be impartial, factual, and professional.”
Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to scale down its nuclear activities and submit to IAEA inspections in exchange for relief from sanctions.
Israel bitterly opposes the deal and congratulated US President Donald Trump for walking away from it earlier this year.
The IAEA has repeatedly said that Iran is continuing to meet its commitments under the deal.
Amano said on Tuesday that evaluations of Iran’s compliance were “ongoing”.
Amano affirmed on Tuesday that the agency implements safeguards in Iran according to rights and obligations deriving from the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements and relevant protocols.
Amano, in a press release, said the IAEA implements the safeguards also in accordance with additional protocols, relevant IAEA Board of Governors and UN Security Council’s resolutions – based on the agency’s established safeguards practices.
Under the existing verification framework, the IAEA sends inspectors to sites and locations only when needed. It uses all safeguards relevant information available to it but it does not take any information at face value.
The agency’s verification activities in Iran are being carried out based on the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) concluded with Tehran and the Additional Protocol, that Iran is provisionally implementing. In addition, the agency is also carrying out verification and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Amano said.
These activities will continue to be carried out within the parameters of the relevant decisions and resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors and the UN Security Council as appropriate, he said.
“As I stated in my reports to the IAEA Board of Governors, evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities for Iran remain ongoing. The Agency continues to evaluate Iran’s declarations under the Additional Protocol, and has conducted complementary accesses under the Additional Protocol to all the sites and locations in Iran which it needed to visit,” Amano stated.
In line with established safeguards practices, all information obtained, including from third parties, is subject to rigorous review and assessed together with other available information to arrive at an independent assessment based on the agency’s own expertise.
It is not the practice of the agency to publicly discuss issues related to any such information.
The agency’s work related to nuclear verification is and must always be impartial, factual, and professional. In order to maintain credibility, the agency’s
independence in relation to the implementation of verification activities is of paramount importance.
Assets seized
France seized assets belonging to Iran’s intelligence services and two Iranian nationals in response to a June plot to attack an exiled Iranian opposition group’s rally outside Paris, the government said on Tuesday.
A senior French official said Paris had no doubt that elements of the Iranian state were behind the bomb plot and that it was likely to have been hatched by hardliners looking to undermine President Hassan Rouhani.
The hardening of relations between Paris and Tehran could have deep consequences
for Iran, coming at a time when Rouhani’s government is looking to European capitals to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal after the United States pulled out.
“An attempted attack in Villepinte was foiled on June 30. An incident of such gravity on our national territory could not go unpunished,” said a joint statement by the foreign, interior and economy ministries.
Asked for reaction, a spokesman at the Iranian Embassy in Paris replied simply: “Hello. Thank you.” There was no immediate response to the French move from Tehran.
The plot targetted a meeting of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) outside the French capital. Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and several former European and Arab ministers attended the rally.
It unravelled after an Iranian diplomat accredited in Austria was arrested in Germany and two other individuals in possession of explosives were detained in Belgium. On Monday, a court in southern Germany ruled the diplomat could be extradited to Belgium.
The asset freezes targeted two individuals identified as Assadollah Asadi and Saeid Hashemi Moghadam, the French statement said. A unit within the Iranian intelligence services was also targetted.
The French government gave no details of the assets involved, describing its measures as “targetted and proportionate”. It said it had acted against the “instigators, authors and accomplices” of the foiled attack.
France had warned Tehran to expect a robust response to the thwarted bombing and diplomatic relations were becoming increasingly strained.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke to their Iranian counterparts about the issue at the UN General Assembly after demanding answers over Iran’s role.
An internal French foreign ministry memo in August told diplomats not to travel to Iran, Reuters revealed, citing the Villepinte bomb plot and a toughening of Iran’s position towards the West.
Paris has also suspended nominating a new ambassador to Iran and not responded to Tehran nominations for dimplomatic positions in France.
The deterioration of relations with France could have wider implications for Iran.
France has been one of the strongest advocates of salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Tehran agree to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for a lifting of economic sanctions.
Trump’s administration has said it expects renewed sanctions to impact the Iranian economy hard.
Iran’s nuclear ballistic programme is a threat and the country’s influence within the Middle East region is a major concern, said French defence minister Florence Parly on Tuesday.
Parly was speaking as she held a meeting with US defence secretary James Mattis.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg lashed out Tuesday at Iran for its financial support to terrorism and for its destabilizing activities in the Middle East region.
“All Allies are concerned about Iran’s destabilizing activities in the wider Middle East region, Stoltenberg told a press conference ahead of a NATO Defense Ministers meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.
“We strongly condemn the financial support for terrorism including Iran’s support to a variety of armed non-state actors,” he added.
“We are also of course concerned about their missile air program and we are committed to ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program remains peaceful,” said the NATO chief.