The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told reporters on Monday the rogue government of Iran had effectively stopped the agency from “complementary access” to its nuclear facilities as required by the 2015 nuclear deal “three and a half years ago.”
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, who left Iran in May condemning the “completely unsatisfactory” state of Iran’s compliance with international law on nuclear development, confirmed on Monday that his agency, which operates under the United Nations framework, has “lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate.”
Three and a half years ago would place the end of appropriate compliance at March 2021, two months into the term of current U.S. President Joe Biden. Biden was the nation’s vice president in 2015 when then-President Barack Obama spearheaded the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – a deal to lift international sanctions in Iran that required Iran to, in turn, stop its menacing uranium enrichment activities. His successor, former President Donald Trump, withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reinstated American sanctions in response to extensive evidence that Iran violated the terms of the deal. While the United States is not a party, the JCPOA technically continues to exist as a pact between Iran and the other guarantor nations: the U.K., China, France, Germany, and Russia.
An exasperated Grossi admitted in June, however, that the deal “exists only on paper and means nothing … nobody applies it, nobody follows it.”
On Monday, Grossi offered a bleak summary of the state of efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
“You will note Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched up to 20% and up to 60% continues to increase, and that Iran has expanded the number of cascades it is using to enrich UF6 [Uranium hexafluoride],” Grossi explained. “It has been more than three and a half years since Iran stopped implementing its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA, including provisionally applying its Additional Protocol and therefore it is also over three and a half years since the Agency was able to conduct complementary access in Iran.”
“Consequently, the Agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate,” he added.
Grossi added that there had also “been no progress in resolving” issues regarding other international legal safeguards.
He concluded that he expected to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian – an underling to “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – in the near future, expressing hope the meeting would occur before the American presidential election in November.
Grossi last visited Tehran in May, meeting with Pezeshkian’s predecessor Ebrahim Raisi weeks before he died in a mysterious helicopter crash. Shortly after leaving Iran, Grossi loudly complained that the amount of access the Iranian government was giving the IAEA to inspect nuclear facilities was “completely unsatisfactory” and the agency was at an “impasse” with Tehran. Grossi’s remarks contrasted significantly from the positive statements by the Iranian government regarding its relationship with the IAEA at the time.
Shortly after Grossi’s visit, the IAEA passed a resolution condemning Iran, complaining that it had blocked a third of its most senior inspectors from accessing relevant nuclear sites to ensure the country’s nuclear development was peaceful. The little information the IAEA managed to procure about the Iranian nuclear program indicated that Tehran was not complying with the JCPOA or responding to calls to stop enriching uranium to near weapons-grade status. In late August, the IAEA revealed that Iran possessed 164.7 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, a far higher purity status than needed for civilian nuclear energy programs.
The stockpile estimated in August was 22.6 kilograms larger than in the IAEA’s previous report in May. That report indicated that Iran possessed 6,201 kilograms of enriched uranium, 30 times the limit imposed on Iran by the JCPOA. The IAEA has warned for months that it believes Iran could build multiple weapons with the stockpiles it currently possesses.
Raisi assumed the presidency of Iran under the banner of a religious “hardliner,” as opposed to the allegedly “moderate” Pezeshkian who has publicly expressed interest in returning to nuclear negotiations and generally improving Iran’s dismal diplomatic relations with the Western world. In late August, Khamenei made public remarks in which he did not openly oppose diplomatic negotiations with the United States, adding dismissively, “there’s no harm in that, but do not place your hopes in them.”
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