IAEA ‘cannot assure’ peaceful nature of Iran nuclear programme

Aljazeera – Sept 7th 2022

The UN’s nuclear watchdog has said it could not guarantee the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme, saying there had been “no progress” in resolving questions about the past presence of nuclear material at undeclared sites.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a new report it was “not in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful”, several news agencies reported on Wednesday.

The report said IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi was “increasingly concerned that Iran has not engaged with the Agency on the outstanding safeguards issues during this reporting period and, therefore, that there has been no progress towards resolving them”.

Tehran has long said that its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful

The IAEA has been pressing Iran for answers about the presence of nuclear material at three undeclared sites. Without credible explanations from Iran on what happened to the uranium that appears to have been present at the three sites, the agency said it could not guarantee that uranium had not been siphoned off to make weapons.

Tehran has insisted that the IAEA probe be concluded in order to revive the 2015 deal on its nuclear programme with world powers, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said Iranian officials say they have “sufficiently responded to those inquiries”.

They said that the “re-digging up of those issues the agency is coming up with now about those three sites, is a result of political pressure … and a result of intelligence provided by Israel and other countries that don’t want to see Iran in a position to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal,” Jabbari said.

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