Iran: New IAEA report confirms continued verification process, nuclear commitment cuts

Iran says a new report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shows the UN atomic agency's continued verification of the country's nuclear program and the suspension of commitments under a 2015 deal.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations, told reporters on Friday that since the very first day when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) took effect the IAEA has kept up monitoring Iran's obligations under the accord.

"The IAEA's new report on the JCPOA indicates the continuation of the agency's verification activities and also depicts Iran's measures towards implementing decisions to suspend its JCPOA commitments," he said.

The report affirms that the UN nuclear agency has continued to verify Iran's non-deviation of nuclear materials as well as its temporary and voluntary implementation of the  Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), he added.

Iran signed the JCPOA with six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — in 2015. 

However, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the historic agreement in limbo.

Iran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to fulfill their end of the bargain by offsetting the impacts of American bans on the Iranian economy.

But as the European parties failed to do so, the Islamic Republic moved in May 2019 to suspend its JCPOA commitments under Articles 26 and 36 of the deal covering Tehran’s legal rights.

Iran took five steps in scaling back its obligations, among them abandoning operational limitations on its nuclear industry, including with regard to the capacity and level of uranium enrichment.

All those measures were adopted after informing the IAEA beforehand, with the agency's inspectors present on the ground in Iran.

Gharibabadi said the IAEA report confirms that Iran has been continuing to enrich uranium to a purity of up to 4.5 percent, higher than the 3.67 percent set by the JCPOA. 

The report, he noted, further shows that Iran has been using new enrichment equipment in its research and development lines.

Iran has produced 1,571.6 kilograms of enriched uranium, with its stock of heavy water reaching 132.6 metric tonnes, he pointed out.

The UN Security Council endorsed the JCPOA under Resolution 2231, after which the 15-member body agreed to lift a UN embargo on the sale of conventional weapons to Iran on October 18, 2020.

Despite being not a party to the JCPOA any longer, Washington has recently launched a campaign to renew the Iran arms ban — in place since 2006/2007 -- through a resolution at the Security Council, but Russia and China are most likely to veto it.  

Russia, China slam US plan to extend UN arms embargo on Iran

Russian and China reject US plans to extend a UN arms embargo and trigger UN sanctions on Iran.

US shares motion with Security Council members

On Friday, US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft announced that Washington had shared a draft resolution on the extension of Iran's arms embargo with Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Estonia which are all members of the Security Council.

"Pretty soon we'll be sharing (with) the full 15. But, you know, we are trying to really work very carefully, very thoroughly," she told reporters.

Craft urged Moscow and Beijing to join what she claimed "a global consensus on Iran's conduct."

"This is an absolute imperative that we exercise all of our options to make certain that this UN arms embargo is extended," she added.

Russia and China - both veto-wielding permanent Security Council members - have declared their opposition to the US plan. 

On Friday, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail UIyanov, said that the Western media's publication of a confidential report on Iran reveals that the IAEA regime of confidentiality is no longer working.

According to the Russian envoy, the report was intended for states members of the IAEA Board of Governors. However, minutes after being handed over to them, the report leaked to Western news agencies, which published excerpts from it.

"This means that the regime of confidentiality in the agency’s work is absolutely not working," Ulyanov said.

Earlier on Friday, an AFP report claimed that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles were almost eight times the limit permitted by the 2015 nuclear deal. According to Reuters, the report contained a call to Iran "immediately to cooperate fully with the agency, including by providing prompt access" to certain locations.

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