Iran Focus

London, 3 July – The head of the UN nuclear agency, tasked with monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities, is suggesting that a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has done little to advance his probe of alleged work by Tehran on an atomic weapon.

Yukiya Amano of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday “more work will be needed” to kick-start the investigation. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani continues to deny the allegations, reflecting the stalemate that has stretched to nearly a decade.

Washington, 1 Jul – US President Barack Obama warned Iran on Tuesday that there would be no nuclear deal if Tehran does not agree to “serious, rigorous” inspections of its facilities.

“The goal of the nuclear negotiations is not to rely on trust, but to set up a verifiable mechanism where we are cutting off the pathways for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon”, Obama said.

Washington, 29 Jun – Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Sunday that the United States has lost its edge going into the final days of international negotiations with Iran to curbs its nuclear projects in return for an end to economic sanctions.

“I would actually fear that the Iranians have the upper hand right now,” Hayden said on ‘Fox News Sunday’.

US Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Iran’s foreign minister in recent days to tell him that Tehran must answer questions about whether its past atomic research was arms-related if it wants a nuclear deal, officials said.

The telephone calls came after Kerry raised eyebrows among some Western officials by saying the U.S. was “not fixated” on any past Iranian work, about which it already had “absolute knowledge,” and was looking to the future instead, Reuters reported.

Iran Focus

Washington, 25 Jun – The Obama Administration is “dropping its bottom-line by the day” in international negotiations over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme, US Rep. Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday.

A report by the Associated Press on Wednesday indicated that a possible agreement is set to offer Tehran high-tech reactors and convert Iran’s underground facility at Fordo for isotope production.

“The Obama Administration is dropping its bottom-line by the day. This morning it’s reported that Fordo will be used for isotope production. While we once demanded that this hardened mountain-top facility be shut, we are now on the verge of accepting technology there that can quickly be re-engineered for bomb-making fuel”, Royce said in a statement.