Iran: IAEA Have Access to 2 Nuclear Sites

reporter 1222 — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 09:30:21 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran agreed to voluntarily grant the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to two sites specified by the UN nuclear agency.

At the conclusion of a two-day trip by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to Tehran, Iran and the UN agency issued a joint statement on agreements and the results of high-level talks between the two sides.

According to the Wednesday statement put on the website of the IAEA, Iran is “voluntarily providing the IAEA with access to the two locations specified by the IAEA.”

What follows is the full text of the joint statement:

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) agreed to further reinforce their cooperation and enhance mutual trust to facilitate the full implementation of Iran’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) and the Additional Protocol (AP) thereto, which is provisionally applied by Iran since 16 January 2016.

After intensive bilateral consultations, Iran and the IAEA reached an agreement on the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the IAEA, in good faith. In this regard, Iran is voluntarily providing the IAEA with access to the two locations specified by the IAEA and facilitating the IAEA verification activities to resolve these issues. Dates for the IAEA access and the verification activities have been agreed. The IAEA verification activities will proceed in accordance with the CSA and the AP, and the IAEA’s standard verification practice as implemented for all States with CSAs and APs on equal basis and without discrimination.

In the context of resolution GOV/2015/72 adopted by the Board of Governors on 15 December 2015, the IAEA and Iran recognize that these safeguards implementation issues are exclusively related to nuclear material and activities subject to safeguards under the CSA and the AP.

In this present context, based on analysis of available information to the IAEA, the IAEA does not have further questions to Iran and further requests for access to locations other than those declared by Iran under its CSA and AP.

Both sides recognize the independence, impartiality, and professionalism of the IAEA continue to be essential in the fulfillment of its verification activities.

The IAEA will continue to take into consideration Iran’s security concerns, by protecting all safeguards confidential information in accordance with the IAEA’s Statute, the relevant provisions of the CSA and the AP, and the established IAEA confidentiality regime, standards, and procedures.

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Grossi: Iran providing access to active nuclear sites

reporter 1222 — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 04:15:12 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran continues to provide international inspectors access to its active nuclear sites, Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s atomic watchdog said Monday.

Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also told board members in Vienna it appears that Iran hasn’t taken new steps away from the landmark pact, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action since its Jan. 5 announcement said that the country was no longer bound by “any restrictions” of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

“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,” Grossi said in prepared remarks.

In recent months, Iran has crossed all main provisions of the pact, increasing its stockpiles of enriched uranium and heavy water past its limits, adding prohibited centrifuges, and enriching uranium past the purity allowed.

Iran took the measures a year after the US pulled out the deal in May 2018 and reinstated tough sanctions.

Last week, the agency said in a report to member nations that its inspectors had confirmed that Iran had nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium since November, reaching 1,020.9 kilograms.

The JCPOA, signed by Iran with the US, Germany, France, Britain, China, and Russia, allows a stockpile of only 202.8 kilograms of low-enriched uranium.

The JCPOA promised Iran economic incentives in return for the curbs on its nuclear program, but since President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal unilaterally and imposed new sanctions, the country’s economy has been struggling.

Iran’s violations of the pact are intended to pressure the other nations involved to increase economic incentives to make up for the American sanctions. So far, attempts by the other members of the JCPOA have fallen short of Iran’s demands.

Other parties to the deal have been meeting with Iran to try to save the accord.

In a separate report to members last week, the IAEA said it had identified three undeclared locations in Iran.

Iran responded to the report by suggesting that the IAEA had no legal basis to inspect those sites.

In his speech to the board members, Grossi called on “Iran to cooperate immediately and fully with the agency, including by providing prompt access to the locations specified by the agency.”

Diplomats say these are related to Iran’s alleged nuclear projects in the 2000s, and not its current activities.

Last week, Iran’s IAEA ambassador said the Islamic Republic has no obligation to grant the nuclear watchdog access to sites when it deems that requests are based on “fabricated information”, accusing the US and Israel of trying to “exert pressure on the agency.”

Kazem Gharibabadi said making such a request “runs counter to the verification process.”

AP and AFP contributed to this story.

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Iran: IAEA Have Access to 2 Nuclear Sites

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