While speaking in University of Indonesia on Friday, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano said, “We are not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material or activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”
While speaking in University of Indonesia on Friday, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano said, “We are not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material or activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”
An IAEA report on November 7 had said that Iran was failing to address suspicions. The statements by the Director IAEA come at a time when P5 + 1 countries, which include the US, France, Britain, Russia, China plus Germany, are engaged in talks with Iran being held in Geneva, Switzerland, mulling the possibility of a nuclear deal. The position taken by the IAEA has put Iran in a more difficult position as it has served to further damage the Iranian regime’s credibility and raises serious questions over its objectives.
The US had already expressed its concerns over Iran’s lack of cooperation with the IAEA. Ambassador Laura Kennedy, the US envoy to Vienna-based IAEA had told reporters, “We’ve been disappointed in their (Iran) failure to constructively engaged on the issue. She had added that she would convey “our concerns with Iran’s failure to engage substantively with the agency on the possibility of a military dimension.” This could be one of the factors which lead to the White House Spokesman Josh Earnest to admit there is a 50/50 chance of success in talks with Iran.
Head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, had claimed that Tehran had answered all the questions raised by the IAEA and the UN watchdog had accepted the answers. The IAEA report, however, suggests otherwise as questions remain unanswered. It has become clear that the IAEA will be unable to complete investigation into Iran’s work in uranium enrichment in time, but even the progress made so far has fallen short of expectations.
Mr Yukiya Amano believes that 2015 will be an important year for the Iran nuclear issue as P5+1 countries hold talks with Iran and attempt to reach an agreement of some kind. They had hoped to achieve a settlement before the deadline of 24 November 2014, and now the talks have been extended till July 2015. In relation to the IAEA, Iran has failed to implement additional protocol that would enable the Agency to give credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in the country.
In the absence of assurances from the IAEA, a nuclear deal with Iran will undermine the agency’s role and render all its work irrelevant. Whether the so-called P5+1 countries will be able to convince Iran to cooperate with the IAEA and remove doubts, which are not entirely unfounded considering the Iranian regime’s track record, will become clear in the days that lie ahead.
