The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said Monday that the agency “is not in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.”
In his latest report to the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors, Director-General Rafael Grossi warned the agency’s verification and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear activities have been “seriously affected” by the country’s halt to compliance with the 2015 JCPOA.
Grossi reported that even if Iran resumes implementation of its obligations under the JCPOA, the IAEA will need to address the gap in its knowledge of what took place while its surveillance and monitoring equipment was not in operation.
Iran removed 27 IAEA cameras from its nuclear sites on June 8. “We would also need to determine the comprehensiveness and accuracy of data recorded by our surveillance equipment between 21 February 2021 and 8 June 2022,” Grossi noted.
“Even then, considerable challenges would remain in order to confirm the consistency with the situation prior to 21 February 2021 of Iran’s declared inventory of centrifuges and heavy water,” he said.
“You have received my report entitled NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Unfortunately, since my previous report, despite the Agency’s stated readiness to engage with Iran without delay to resolve these issues, Iran has not engaged with the Agency. Consequently, there have been no developments in this reporting period and none of the outstanding issues have been resolved. Therefore, all of these safeguards issues remain outstanding,” Grossi said.
“Unless and until Iran provides technically credible explanations for the presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin at three undeclared locations in Iran and informs the Agency of the current location(s) of the nuclear material and/or of the contaminated equipment, the Agency will not be able to confirm the correctness and completeness of Iran’s declarations under its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement,” he pointed out.
“Because it has not yet done so, the Agency is not in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful,” Grossi warned, adding that the IAEA “remains ready to re-engage with Iran without delay to resolve these matters.”
