JCPOA Reimplementation Hinges on Closure of IAEA Investigations

There would be no “reimplementation” of the 2015 nuclear deal if Iran’s alleged safeguards case at the International Atomic Energy Agency is not closed before that day, Iran’s top nuclear chief said. 
“We have not retreated and cannot retreat,” Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in an interview with ISNA. 
The IAEA has started investigations into nuclear material allegedly found on undeclared sites in Iran based on data that Tehran says has been fabricated by its arch enemy Israel. 
“These questions are the continuation of the old PMD [possible military dimensions] file and have no safeguards basis because Iran has no undeclared site,” Eslami said.
Despite an agreement in March to close the probe for good, the agency’s director general reported that Iran’s answers were not credible, paving the way for the IAEA Board of Governors to pass a censure resolution against the country in June. 
Conclusion of the questions is now put forward as one of Tehran’s key demands for the revival and reimplementation of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The JCPOA curbed Iran’s nuclear activity in return for sanctions relief, but the United States pulled out in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions, to which Iran reacted by rowing back on its commitments.
Negotiations have been underway for more than a year to work out how both sides can resume compliance. 

A European Union draft has been reviewed and amended by Iran, who is currently scrutinizing the US response. 
The text suggests that Iran addresses the agency’s concerns before the deal takes effect on the “reimplementation day”, which would be one to three months after a basic agreement is reached, and the US and the other parties in the talks would, in return, urge the IAEA Board of Governors to close the investigation and nullify the June resolution. 
Eslami said raising new questions with baseless accusations is a means to ruin Iran’s nuclear program.
“These are political excuses, like it was in the PMD,” he said, noting that they cannot be separated from the 2015 deal. 
The file about possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program was closed with the signing of the JCPOA which imposed the strictest monitoring and inspection regime on Tehran’s activities.  
Eslami stressed that the JCPOA was created with the aim of countering such allegations whose repetition is now unacceptable. 
“We cannot sit down to see they sanction the Iranian people for groundless reasons,” he said.
Iran has always denied seeking a nuclear bomb, citing a religious decree that bans building and storing weapons of mass destruction, and insists that its nuclear program is exclusively for civilian purposes. 
Western countries have refused to discuss the issue in JCPOA talks, arguing that it is outside the purview of the deal and concerns basic safeguards obligations.  
Although the details of the US response to the EU draft and Iran’s amendments have not been disclosed, US officials have said Washington would not put any pressure on the IAEA to conclude its probe. 
Washington says the issue will only be addressed once Iran provides the answers that the IAEA requires.
In latest remarks, US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said safeguards on nuclear materials relate to the very core of the IAEA’s mandate and cannot be linked to the nuclear deal. 
“We have been crystal clear that we do not believe there should be any conditionality between reimplementation of the JCPOA and the investigations related to Iran’s legal obligations under the [Non-Proliferation Treaty] and its Comprehensive Safeguard Agreement,” he said at a press briefing.