Post by Andrei Tchentchik on May 2, 2020 11:01:35 GMT 2
(.#B.036).- The nuclear agency of the Atomic Inspection Agency is sounding the alarm.
Iranian nuclear: the atomic inspection agency sounds the alarm.
IRAN GOVERNMENT ARCHIVE PHOTO, VIA AP
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during a visit to the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran in 2013.
(Paris) Tehran to provide "clarifications": International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sounded "alarm bells" on Tuesday, blaming Iran for its lack of transparency on its nuclear activities and the unable to access two suspicious sites.
Posted on March 3, 2020 at 3:53 p.m.
DIDIER LAURAS
FRANCE MEDIA AGENCY
"I am sounding the alarm," said the director general of the UN agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, in an interview with the AFP in Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron.
ARCHIVE PHOTO ISNA AGENCY, VIA AP
The Arak nuclear complex, 250 km southwest of Tehran.
In a context of growing tensions, "Iran must decide to cooperate more clearly with the agency to give the necessary clarifications", he added, referring to the discovery of "traces of anthropogenic uranium" ( resulting from human activities) in a warehouse near Tehran in 2019.
This warning to Iran is at the heart of a new agency report that will be reviewed next week at the IAEA board of governors. The document, viewed by the AFP in Vienna, denounces the fact that Iran denied the IAEA access to two sites in January.
" It is serious. My job is to get attention, "said the managing director, who took office in late 2019.
PHOTO LEONHARD FOEGER, REUTERS
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi.
The IAEA will also communicate to the governors the state of Iran’s current nuclear activities. According to a second report consulted by AFP in Vienna, Iran's enriched uranium stock is five times the limit authorized by the 2015 agreement (JCPOA), which Tehran started to free itself in May 2019.
According to the inspectors, the amount accumulated by Tehran reached on February 19 1,510 kilos of enriched uf6 uranium, for an authorized limit of 300 kilos in this agreement, signed between Iran and the big powers.
Iranian site "cleaned up"
According to the same report, Iran produces enriched uranium at a rate of 4.5%, above the threshold of 3.67% set by the agreement. But this rate is still very far from the level required to make a bomb (more than 90%).
WANA PRESS AGENCY PHOTO, VIA REUTERS
Aerial view of the heavy water generator at the Arak nuclear complex in Iran on December 23, 2019.
The two sites to which the IAEA has been denied access are among a total of three positions identified by the agency as asking "a number of questions related to the possibility of nuclear material and undeclared nuclear activities. “, Says the dedicated report.
A diplomatic source clarified to the AFP that these were possible activities of Iran prior to the JCPOA.
Iran justified the refusal in a letter by saying that it "does not recognize any allegations regarding past (country) activities and does not consider itself required to respond" regarding this period.
In one of the three places targeted, the report specifies that the IAEA observed at the beginning of July 2019 "activities [...] compatible with efforts to clean up part of the site".
The 2015 nuclear deal, long regarded as the centerpiece of international negotiations on this issue, has been threatened since the United States unilaterally denounced it in 2018. Tehran, asphyxiated by economic sanctions, responded by freeing itself , since May 2019, of several of its commitments.
But Grossi said that "Iran has other obligations and inspections than those related to the JCPOA."
A hidden site in Tehran
The IAEA has been asking for clarifications for several months on the nature of the activities carried out on the unreferenced Tehran site, denounced by the Israeli government.
The UN agency never specified its location, but diplomatic sources told AFP that it was a warehouse in the capital's Turquzabad district.
The fact that we have found traces is very important, that means that there is the possibility of nuclear activities and material which are not under international control and whose origin and fate are unknown. This is something that worries me.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Iran of having conducted illegal nuclear activities on the site before 2015.
PHOTO AGENCY OF ATOMIC ENERGY OF IRAN, VIA AFP
Centrifuges inside the Natanz nuclear power plant, 300 km south of Tehran.
This discovery of a hidden site is likely to strengthen the position of a hard line vis-à-vis Iran, in particular in Washington.
"With inspections, we don't play," insisted Mr. Grossi. “These are not academic questions. There are places, clues, agency information where we need to be clearer, and at the moment this is not possible. "
Emmanuel Macron "called on Tehran to cooperate immediately and fully with the agency," according to a statement from the French presidency issued after his meeting with the head of the IAEA.
F I N .
Iranian nuclear: the atomic inspection agency sounds the alarm.
IRAN GOVERNMENT ARCHIVE PHOTO, VIA AP
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during a visit to the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran in 2013.
(Paris) Tehran to provide "clarifications": International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sounded "alarm bells" on Tuesday, blaming Iran for its lack of transparency on its nuclear activities and the unable to access two suspicious sites.
Posted on March 3, 2020 at 3:53 p.m.
DIDIER LAURAS
FRANCE MEDIA AGENCY
"I am sounding the alarm," said the director general of the UN agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, in an interview with the AFP in Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron.
ARCHIVE PHOTO ISNA AGENCY, VIA AP
The Arak nuclear complex, 250 km southwest of Tehran.
In a context of growing tensions, "Iran must decide to cooperate more clearly with the agency to give the necessary clarifications", he added, referring to the discovery of "traces of anthropogenic uranium" ( resulting from human activities) in a warehouse near Tehran in 2019.
This warning to Iran is at the heart of a new agency report that will be reviewed next week at the IAEA board of governors. The document, viewed by the AFP in Vienna, denounces the fact that Iran denied the IAEA access to two sites in January.
" It is serious. My job is to get attention, "said the managing director, who took office in late 2019.
PHOTO LEONHARD FOEGER, REUTERS
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi.
The IAEA will also communicate to the governors the state of Iran’s current nuclear activities. According to a second report consulted by AFP in Vienna, Iran's enriched uranium stock is five times the limit authorized by the 2015 agreement (JCPOA), which Tehran started to free itself in May 2019.
According to the inspectors, the amount accumulated by Tehran reached on February 19 1,510 kilos of enriched uf6 uranium, for an authorized limit of 300 kilos in this agreement, signed between Iran and the big powers.
Iranian site "cleaned up"
According to the same report, Iran produces enriched uranium at a rate of 4.5%, above the threshold of 3.67% set by the agreement. But this rate is still very far from the level required to make a bomb (more than 90%).
WANA PRESS AGENCY PHOTO, VIA REUTERS
Aerial view of the heavy water generator at the Arak nuclear complex in Iran on December 23, 2019.
The two sites to which the IAEA has been denied access are among a total of three positions identified by the agency as asking "a number of questions related to the possibility of nuclear material and undeclared nuclear activities. “, Says the dedicated report.
A diplomatic source clarified to the AFP that these were possible activities of Iran prior to the JCPOA.
Iran justified the refusal in a letter by saying that it "does not recognize any allegations regarding past (country) activities and does not consider itself required to respond" regarding this period.
In one of the three places targeted, the report specifies that the IAEA observed at the beginning of July 2019 "activities [...] compatible with efforts to clean up part of the site".
The 2015 nuclear deal, long regarded as the centerpiece of international negotiations on this issue, has been threatened since the United States unilaterally denounced it in 2018. Tehran, asphyxiated by economic sanctions, responded by freeing itself , since May 2019, of several of its commitments.
But Grossi said that "Iran has other obligations and inspections than those related to the JCPOA."
A hidden site in Tehran
The IAEA has been asking for clarifications for several months on the nature of the activities carried out on the unreferenced Tehran site, denounced by the Israeli government.
The UN agency never specified its location, but diplomatic sources told AFP that it was a warehouse in the capital's Turquzabad district.
The fact that we have found traces is very important, that means that there is the possibility of nuclear activities and material which are not under international control and whose origin and fate are unknown. This is something that worries me.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Iran of having conducted illegal nuclear activities on the site before 2015.
PHOTO AGENCY OF ATOMIC ENERGY OF IRAN, VIA AFP
Centrifuges inside the Natanz nuclear power plant, 300 km south of Tehran.
This discovery of a hidden site is likely to strengthen the position of a hard line vis-à-vis Iran, in particular in Washington.
"With inspections, we don't play," insisted Mr. Grossi. “These are not academic questions. There are places, clues, agency information where we need to be clearer, and at the moment this is not possible. "
Emmanuel Macron "called on Tehran to cooperate immediately and fully with the agency," according to a statement from the French presidency issued after his meeting with the head of the IAEA.
F I N .
