The ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency has said the recent IAEA report confirms Tehran’s commitment to its cooperation agreement with the UN nuclear agency.
Ambassador Reza Najafi said the IAEA report, which was issued on Friday, confirmed that Iran had taken 16 practical measures and had started implementing two more steps under the framework agreement on further cooperation which was signed between Iran and the UN nuclear agency last November.
In May, Iran agreed to take five more practical transparency measures, including the two remaining steps, until August 25 under the framework accord. The steps included providing information about two issues that are part of the agency’s investigation into what it calls possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program, namely alleged experiments on high explosives and alleged studies related to calculating nuclear explosive yields.
Tehran says its nuclear program is only meant for peaceful purposes.
Najafi said Iran had informed the agency that the full implementation of the five measures was not possible until August 25 in view of the complexity of the issues.
“The agency has not expressed concern in this regard because it was informed in advance,” he said.
The IAEA said by the August 25 deadline, Tehran had completed one of the five measures, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The report also said Iran had completed two additional measures by August 31, but had only started discussions with the agency on the two remaining steps.
Compliance With Geneva deal
On Tehran’s commitments under the terms of the extended interim nuclear deal, the agency said Iran had diluted or converted its stock of 20 percent enriched uranium. It also said Iran has started to reduce its stock of low-enriched uranium gas over the past three months.
Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) clinched an interim nuclear deal in Geneva last November, under which Iran agreed to scale down parts of its nuclear program for six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief. The accord, which came into force on January 20, was extended for four more months after Iran and the major powers failed to meet a self-imposed July 20 to work out a comprehensive deal to resolve the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iran-IAEA cooperation is separate from, but closely linked to, the nuclear talks between Tehran and the major powers. Any progress in the IAEA probe into Iran’s nuclear activities will help advance the international diplomacy on the nuclear issue.
Iran has increased its cooperation with the UN nuclear agency to allay concerns over its nuclear work since the government of President Hassan Rouhani took office last year.
