IAEA Report Shows Continued Verification of JCPOA

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s new report on the 2015 nuclear deal confirms that the verification of Iran’s nuclear program has continued since the agreement was enacted, an Iranian diplomat said. 
“It also demonstrates Iran’s measures related to the implementation of its decisions to suspend JCPOA commitments,” Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations, was quoted as saying by ISNA. 
Gharibabadi was using the abbreviation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the nuclear deal that Iran signed in 2015 with six world powers. 
The IAEA, as the United Nations atomic watchdog, was assigned to verify and monitor Iran's implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the deal. 
It confirmed in consecutive reports Iran’s commitment to its obligations, but the United States unilaterally exited the deal in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran. 
A year later, Iran began to scale back its commitments in response to the US pressure and the other parties’ inability to fulfill their economic promises. 
Officials in Tehran announced, however, that Iran will continue to allow IAEA inspectors access to facilities to monitor their operations.  
“The recent report shows that Iran has cooperated properly with the agency to continue its verification, even under the special circumstances arising from the spread of the coronavirus disease,” Gharibabadi said.
The agency cited “exceptional cooperation” from Iran in facilitating the operation, primarily by chartering aircraft to fly inspectors to and from Iran, according to AP.
It also affirmed that the UN nuclear watchdog has continued to verify Iran’s non-deviation of nuclear materials as well as its temporary and voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement with the agency, the diplomat added.
Parties to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have IAEA safeguards agreements to ensure they do not divert civilian nuclear programs to military purposes, but additional protocols grant the IAEA authority to conduct more rigorous, short-notice inspections at undeclared nuclear facilities.

Technical Data

The IAEA issued on Friday the confidential document distributed to member countries.
It said, according to Gharibabadi, that as of May 20, Iran’s total stockpile of low-enriched uranium amounted to 1,571.6 kilograms (1.73 tons), which is 550.7 kg higher than the figure reported in March, and that 1,356.5 kg of it were enriched to the purity level of 4.5%. 
Under JCPOA, Iran is only allowed to keep a stockpile of 202.8 kilograms of uranium enriched to the purity of 3.67%. 
The document also said Iran “has surpassed the pact’s 130-ton limitation on heavy water and reached 132.6 tons”, he added. 
“The use of new machinery, including enrichment with IR4, IR5, IR6, IRS, IRS6 and IR2M machines, in research and development” was also mentioned in the report, Gharibabadi said.  
With steps away from its JPCOA obligations, western powers assert that Iran is now closer to amassing enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, but Tehran insists it has no such goal and that its atomic program is only for producing energy and other civilian applications.
Iranian officials have declared that the purpose of the current measures is to pressure other nations involved to increase economic incentives to make up for hard-hitting sanctions imposed by Washington after the US withdrawal.  
They have also announced repeatedly that all measures would be immediately reversed once Iran can enjoy the benefits promised under JCPOA once again.