U.N. finds Iran complying with nuke deal

ISTANBUL — The United Nations watchdog responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities certified Thursday that the country remains in compliance with a 2015 accord struck with world powers, even as President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to withdraw from the deal.

In its quarterly report to member states, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran’s stock of low-enriched uranium, which is used for peaceful purposes, is in line with the nuclear pact, as is the number of centrifuges used for enrichment.

The report, which is confidential but was seen by multiple news agencies, also stated that Iran has “not pursued the construction” of its heavy water reactor at Arak, which would give it the capability to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The agency uses electronic seals and online enrichment

monitors to send reports to inspectors in real time. It also conducts on-site visits and has access to satellite imagery.

Iran’s envoy to the agency, Reza Najafi, hailed the report as reflective of the agency’s “unbiased and professional” work, Iranian media outlets reported. The U.S. State Department said in a statement that Washington has “full confidence in the agency and its highly skilled and professional inspectors.”

The document published Thursday is the watchdog agency’s eighth certification of Iranian compliance since the deal took effect in January 2016. It comes a week after the United States’ envoy to the U.N., Nikki Haley, visited the agency in Vienna to convey the administration’s concerns.

The administration has placed the accord, which was negotiated during Barack Obama’s presidency, under interagency review. It says the deal does not do enough to address other issues, including Iran’s ballistic missile development and human-rights violations in the region.

Haley called on the agency to “pursue every angle possible” to monitor Iran’s activities, including inspections of military sites Iran says are not part of its nuclear research program.

Iranian officials have rejected that option, with government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht this week dismissing any push for military inspections as a “dream.” But International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said Thursday that the agency “has access to [all] locations without making distinctions between military and civilian locations” and can request access to military sites if there is credible evidence of malfeasance. In a statement Thursday, Haley said if “inspections of Iranian military sites are ‘merely a dream,’ then Iranian compliance … is also a dream.”

But critics see the push for further inspections as an attempt to politicize the agency’s work and potentially force Iran to withdraw from the deal. The administration, including Trump, has repeatedly threatened to pull out of the accord. Trump told The Wall Street Journal in July that he “did not expect” to declare Iran compliant in the coming months, despite a lack of public evidence of any Iranian violations.

“Almost any other U.S. administration would have a very hard time shrugging off the data provided by the IAEA since it’s such a trusted source,” said Colin Kahl, a former deputy assistant to Obama.