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 world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), adding that the country continues to cooperate with the agency.

"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,” Rafael Mariano Grossi said while addressing in the IAEA's Board of Governors on Monday.

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 added.

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.

Last Thursday, Iran said it will not allow Israeli allegations, which Tel Aviv claims are rooted in findings of a so-called secret operation, to form the basis of the Islamic Republic’s cooperation with the United Nations nuclear agency.

Iran’s mission to the IAEA made the remarks in a statement after the watchdog demanded “complementary” access to two sites that are alleged by the Israeli regime to host diversionary nuclear activities.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that merely forwarding some papers based on the Intelligence Services’ fabricated information is not consistent with the Agency’s Statute, Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, and the Additional Protocol,” the mission said.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not want to set a bad precedence by giving legitimacy to such alleged information and even considers it counterproductive for the credibility of the Agency, to the detriment of its relations with the Member States,” the statement noted.

It came after Iran’s permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations, Kazem Gharibabadi, said on Tuesday that a new IAEA report shows the UN nuclear watchdog has kept up its monitoring and verification process inside the country concerning the nuclear deal.

“This report emphasizes that Iran still continues to voluntarily and temporarily implement the Additional Protocol and verification of non-diversion of the declared material and activities in Iran will continue,” the Iranian envoy added.

The IAEA is tasked with monitoring the technical implementation of the nuclear deal.