Move to monitor Iran nuclear deal stymied
VIENNA: The US is pushing UN nuclear inspectors to check military sites in Iran to verify it is not breaching its deal with world powers. But for this to happen, inspectors must believe such checks are necessary, and so far they do not, officials say.
Last week, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley visited the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is scrutinising compliance with the 2015 agreement as part of a review of the pact by the administration of President Donald Trump. He has called it “the worst deal ever negotiated”.
After her talks with officials of the UN nuclear watchdog, Haley said: “There are… numerous undeclared sites that have not been inspected. That is a problem.”
Iran dismissed her demands as “merely a dream”.
The agency has the authority to request access to facilities in Iran, including military ones, if there are new and credible indications of banned nuclear activities. But officials said Washington had not provided indications to back up its pressure on the agency to make such a request.
“We’re not going to visit a military site like Parchin just to send a political signal,” one official said, mentioning a military site often cited by opponents of the deal, including Israel and many US Republicans. The deal was struck under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano frequently describes his Vienna-based agency as a technical rather than a political one, underscoring the need for its work to be based on facts alone.
The accord restricts Iran’s atomic activities with a view to keeping it a year’s work away from having enough enriched uranium or plutonium for a nuclear bomb, should it pull out of the accord and sprint towards making a weapon.
The deal also allows the agency to request access to facilities other than the nuclear installations Iran has already declared if it has concerns about banned materials or activities there. But it must present a basis for those concerns.
Those terms are widely understood by officials from the agency and member states to mean there must be credible information that arouses suspicion, and the agency’s officials have made it clear they will not take it at face value.
Despite Haley’s public comments, she neither asked the agency to visit specific sites nor offered new intelligence on any.
“She conveyed that the agency will need to continue to robustly exercise its authorities to verify Iran’s declaration and monitor the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” a US State Department spokesperson said, using the deal’s official name.
Under US law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran’s compliance with the deal. The next deadline is October.