The UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has expressed “serious concern” regarding Iran’s failure to allow inspectors access to two sites where nuclear activity may have occurred in the past and failing to clarify undeclared nuclear material which inspectors discovered last year.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, speaking at today’s meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors, stated: “I note with serious concern that, for over four months, Iran has denied us access to two locations and that, for almost a year, it has not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify our questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities”.
The IAEA reports that at one of the locations in question they have identified activities “consistent with efforts to sanitise” the facility from July 2019 onward.
The senior IAEA official called on Iran to “cooperate immediately and fully”, since its non-compliance was “adversely affecting the Agency’s ability to resolve the questions and to provide credible assurance of the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities at these locations in Iran”.
Iran has claimed that the IAEA’s recent report into the suspicious locations was a source of “deep regret and disappointment” and alleged it was based upon “fabricated information” from “intelligence services” – an apparent reference to Israel’s interception of documents detailing Iran’s historic nuclear activities from a secret Tehran location in 2018. The IAEA has asserted that it only confronted Iran after extensively verifying all information it has received from third parties.
While the two sites currently under discussion are not thought to be key to Iran’s current nuclear activities, the IAEA is requesting access to confirm whether past activities going back almost two decades have been properly declared and all materials accounted for.
An inspection last year at a “carpet-cleaning facility” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flagged as a likely former nuclear site turned up trace amounts of fissile material.
Iran has significantly increased its nuclear programme in recent months – drawing repeat criticism from the IAEA – with increased stockpiling of enriched uranium and enriching to levels beyond that required for a peaceful domestic nuclear energy programme. Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium now stands at a level eight times higher than the level permitted under the terms of the JCPOA nuclear agreement.
