IAEA says Iran's cooperation with agency, JCPOA compliance not changed

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has once again confirmed Iran's compliance with its commitments as per the 2015 nuclear deal with the 5+1 group, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), adding that the country continues to cooperate with the agency.

According to Press TV, Rafael Mariano Grossi said while addressing the IAEA's Board of Governors on Monday "To date, the agency has not observed any changes to Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA in connection with this announcement, or in the level of cooperation by Iran in relation to agency verification and monitoring activities under the JCPOA.”

The IAEA head, however, repeated his past claim that Iran has been barring the agency’s access to two out of three locations about which “the agency has identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities.”

“The agency sought access to two of the locations. Iran has not provided access to these locations and has not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify the Agency’s questions,” he claimed.

US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the JCPOA, signed between Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, in May 2018 and reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions, which had been lifted by the accord. Under Washington’s pressure, the three European signatories to the JCPOA have so far failed to fulfill their contractual obligation to protect Tehran’s business interests against the sanctions.

In response, Iran began last May to gradually reduce its commitments as part of its legal rights under the JCPOA to both retaliate for Washington’s departure and prompt the European trio to respect their obligations towards Tehran.

The country has so far taken five steps away from the deal under the IAEA’s supervision, but says its counter-measures are reversible if the other parties begin to fulfill their side of the agreement.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Grossi alleged that lack of access to those sites “is adversely affecting the agency’s ability to clarify and resolve these questions and to provide credible assurance of the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran.”

The IAEA chief concluded his remarks on Iran by saying, “The agency continues to verify the non-diversion of nuclear material declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement. Evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran continue.”

Iran argues that the IAEA's concerns about those sites, which have nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program, emanate from false reports provided to the nuclear agency by Israeli spy agencies, as a result of which the country is under no obligation to address those concerns.

ME