Cooperation with Iran Makes Progress

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency said the process of implementing agreements made with Iran in March has started and some progress has been made, although not as much as hoped. 
As per the joint statement of March 4, the agency has installed surveillance cameras at a centrifuge manufacturing workshop, as well as enrichment monitoring devices at Fordow facility and the pilot fuel enrichment plant in Natanz, according to Rafael Grossi.  
“But this is a fraction of what we envisaged and what needs to happen now is a sustained and uninterrupted process that leads to all the commitments contained in the Joint Statement being fulfilled without further delay,” he said in his introductory statement to the Board of Governors on Monday, the agency’s official website reported. 
Following Grossi’s latest trip to Iran in March, the two sides agreed on a joint agenda in March to address ambiguities over Tehran’s nuclear activities, including reports about the detection of uranium enriched to near weapons grade. 
Grossi also said Iran has provided a possible explanation for the presence of depleted uranium in one part of the location known as Marivan. 
The agency has raised questions about uranium particles that it claims have been found at three old undeclared sites in Iran. The director general had earlier dismissed Iran’s explanations as uncredible, which led to the passing of two resolutions against the country by the Board of Governors. 
“I note that our assessment for the location still stands and I reiterate that the remaining outstanding safeguards issues … still need to be resolved for the Agency to be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful,” Grossi said, referring to the other claimed locations. 
Iran says the alleged presence of nuclear material at the three sites is based on fabricated data, maintaining that its nuclear program is only for civilian purposes. 
Grossi also mentioned in his introductory statement that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium has risen by over a quarter in three months, with uranium enriched up to 20% approaching half a ton and high enriched uranium enriched up to 60% well over 100 kg.