E3, US Issue Statement On Iran As UN Nuclear Meeting Opens
As the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors began its quarterly meeting Tuesday, countries expressed concerns over Iran’s activities.
As the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors began its quarterly meeting Tuesday, countries expressed concerns over Iran’s activities.
The United States delivered a statement on verification and monitoring of Iran’s activities before France, Germany and the UK (E3) also issued a joint statement on Tehran’s implementation of its nuclear commitments under the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, which is considered defunct.
Despite criticism by Israel accusing the IAEA of watering down its investigation into Iran's activities, both statements – by the US and the E3 – expressed gratitude to the Agency for its objective reporting on Iran’s nuclear program. “We would like to express our appreciation for the Agency’s professional and impartial work, and in particular, inspections of Iran’s facilities,” read the E3 statement.
Following unusually strong criticism by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that accused his agency of "capitulation to Iranian pressure," IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told a news conference on Monday that "We never ever, never ever water down our standards.”
Last week the IAEA issued a report saying that Iran had partially cooperated in an investigation about three sites suspected of having been used as secret nuclear locations more than two decades ago.
Iran had tried to stymie the investigation since 2019. The IAEA had repeatedly denounced Iranian stonewalling, which spurred its 35-nation Board of Governors to pass a resolution last year demanding Iran to comply immediately. However, in a report to member states earlier in June, Grossi said Iran had provided explanation about depleted uranium traces at one site.
Although the E3 appreciated the IAEA’s “objective reporting,” they said: “We see no substantial change in Iran’s behavior. Over the reporting period, Iran has unabatedly continued escalating its nuclear program beyond civilian justification, and has displayed little will to implement the transparency commitments laid out in the Joint Statement agreed last March.”
Noting that the Director General’s report shows Iran continues down its path of significant nuclear escalation, they mentioned Tehran's expansion of its stockpile of 5%, 20% and 60% enriched uranium.
Highlighting that Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile is now more than 21 times the JCPOA limit, the E3 said the stockpile has increased by almost one third, to 114.1 kg in the form of UF6 (uranium hexafluoride or hex).
"This is almost three times the amount of nuclear material from which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded,” they warned.
They also expressed worries about Iran continuing to install additional advanced centrifuge cascades, which permanently improved its enrichment capabilities.
The three also referred to the detection last January of uranium particles enriched to 83.7% U-235, highlighting the seriousness of Iran’s continuing escalation. “This enrichment was grossly inconsistent with the level declared by Iran and constituted an unprecedented and extremely grave development, for which there is no credible civilian justification,” they underlined, adding that the significance of the detection of undeclared changes made to the cascade configuration at Fordow should be fully understood.
“Iran is still using a configuration which can enable the production of highly enriched material at levels considerably over 60%, showing Iran’s disregard for the gravity of this development,” the E3 stated.
They argued that the circumstances of such a discovery “through an unannounced inspection,” as well as the "accumulation of highly enriched uranium continue to ring alarm bells.”
They pointed to Iran’s decision to remove IAEA’s surveillance and monitoring equipment, saying the move had detrimental implications for the Agency’s ability to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.
They urged Iran to re-install all equipment in all the locations deemed necessary by the IAEA, and to provide all the footage from the cameras, including data recorded from February 2021 to June 2022, during which the nuclear watchdog had no access to data on centrifuge and component manufacturing.
Referring to the talks to revive the JCPOA, which collapsed due to Iran’s strenuous demands beyond the nuclear accord, they expressed deep regret that Iran did not accept a "fair and balanced deal" tabled by the EU almost a year ago, and instead chose to accelerate its program. “Iran bears full responsibility for this situation.”
The statement by the US was somewhat similar in concept but a little different in wording. Ambassador Laura S.H. Holgate also expressed concern about the enrichment of uranium to 60%, saying, “No other country in the world today utilizes uranium enriched to 60 percent for the purpose Iran claims.”
“Iran argues it is unfairly targeted by others. The reality remains that Iran continues to single itself out through its own actions. Iran should cease its nuclear provocations that pose grave proliferation risks,” read parts of the US statement.
According to the statement, Iran ended hopes of a mutual return to JCPOA implementation last September by demanding that safeguards obligations be implemented differently in Iran than in all other states.
“Such demands are simply impossible to accept” as “nowhere in the world would IAEA inspectors ignore possible undeclared nuclear material and activities, and the detection of nuclear material particles at multiple undeclared locations.”
Earlier in the day, Mohammad Marandi, the advisor to the Iranian negotiating team in the nuclear talks, reiterated that Iran will not sign a nuclear deal until the IAEA declares all outstanding cases resolved.
On Tuesday, Gilad Erdan told The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York that “the real bad news is that apparently there is an interim agreement that is being discussed these days with Iran.”
It “would put the Iranian nuclear program on hold but won’t roll back the enriched uranium or the nuclear facilities of Iran and in exchange, they will get economic benefits,” he stressed.
He made the comments a few days after National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met with the US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan at the White House to discuss Iran's pursuit of atomic bombs at a time when Tehran has enriched uranium close to weapons-grade levels.
There is concern in Israel that Washington will attempt to revive the defunct 2015 nuclear pact between the six world powers and Iran.
Moscow's military ties to Tehran, as well as its use of Iranian-made drones against Ukraine, have led the Biden administration not to discard that possibility.
“The international community has failed, totally failed to block Iran from advancing itself to becoming a nuclear threshold state,” Erdan noted.
IAEA Director General on Monday presented the latest report on Iranian verification and monitoring.
“Iranian enriched uranium stockpiles have risen by more than a quarter in three months, according to Rafael Grossi.
He reminded the Board that in March this year, Iran and the IAEA agreed to take additional appropriate measures for monitoring and verification. “Some progress has been made but not at the level, pace and sustained rhythm that I would expect,” Grossi said.
“The inventory of enriched uranium is growing at a very fast pace, and the activities are also growing. So, the presence of the IAEA should be commensurate with that,” added Grossi.
The Israeli UN ambassador reiterated this Tuesday, saying “what we have been seeing in the last year proves that everything that Israel has been saying has been proven correct,” Iran only becoming more bold.
“I do not see any sanctions that are being discussed and might be imposed against the nuclear program of Iran,” he said, claiming there is no deterrent against the regime’s capability building.
“We always believed that the only formula to deter Iran’ which is a rogue and ruthless regime, is through a credible military threat,” he reiterated.
The Financial Times last week reported that the special envoy Robert Malley met with Iran’s UN ambassador in New York several times to negotiate over American citizens held hostage by Iran.
A reporter asked State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel during his regular briefing on Monday to confirm the report.
“I don’t have anything to announce on this front,” Patel responded.
He added, “As you’ve heard me say previously, we have the means to communicate with Iran and deliver messages to them that are in America’s interest to do so. We’re not going to detail the contents of those messages or the means of those deliveries. I don’t have anything additional to add there.” He refused to comment further.
There were many unconfirmed reports in May that Tehran and Washington were engaged in talks over releasing American hostages in exchange for some of Iran’s frozen funds abroad.
Iran International in January had reported the secret meetings and the State Department at the time did not deny or confirm the report using the same language Patel used on Monday.
Former spokesperson Ned Price in response to a question by Iran International said on January 18, “We have the means to deliver specific and firm messages to Iran when it is in America’s interest to do so.”
Iran International had asked the DoS that according to information it obtained, US Malley had met with Iran’s UN ambassador, Saeed Iravani, “at least three times in the last two months.”
“But we're not going to get into details about how we deliver these messages, except to say that we do so in close coordination with allies and partners.”
Regarding the content of these messages, Ned Price had said, “We have consistently conveyed three messages: stop killing peaceful protesters, stop selling weapons to Russia to kill Ukrainians, and release the Americans you’ve wrongfully detained. We also use any available opportunity to make clear that we will take necessary steps to protect American citizens.”
On the issue of American dual-nationals held hostage in Iran, no breakthroughs took place even if Malley met and negotiated with Iravani in the end of 2022 or even later. Three individuals, Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz have spent years in Iranian prisons charged with bogus accusations, without due process of law.
If Malley did meet Iravani face-to-face, it would be the first reported direct meeting between US and Iranian diplomats since the Biden administration assumed office and offered talks to revive the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal. Iran has consistently refused direct talks with the United States, as a direct order by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
During 11 months of nuclear negotiations in Vienna from April 2021 to March 2022, the United States was engaged on the side-lines. Messages were being carried by European Union representatives, as well as by Russian diplomats between the US and Iranian delegations.
In recent weeks, several politicians and pundits in Iran, allowed to speak in the local media, have urged direct talks with Washington to resolve the nuclear and other disagreements and relieve the pressure of US sanctions but so far Khamenei has not relented.
In an address to the pro-Israel advocacy group AIPAC on Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "If Iran rejects the path of diplomacy, then, as President Joe Biden has repeatedly made clear, all options are on the table to ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon."
Referring to the agencies latest report on its attempts to resolve outstanding issues with Tehran, Netanyahu in unusual criticism suggested the UN watchdog risked becoming politicized and irrelevant.
The IAEA issued the report in late May saying that Iran had provided a satisfactory answer on one case of suspect uranium particles and allowed the IAEA to re-install some monitoring equipment originally put in place under the now-defunct 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
The re-installed equipment is a fraction of what the IAEA had planned to set up to improve its surveillance of Iran's nuclear activities, as the IAEA said it had agreed with Iran in March in a bid to defuse a standoff between both sides over Iran's cooperation.
Iran began restricting IAEA access to its nuclear installations in 2021 and increased the level of uranium enrichment just as the United States announced its readiness to begin negotiations to revive the JCPOA. Tehran increased restrictions on monitoring access as talks continued to revive the agreement.
With Iran having enriched enough uranium to 60% fissile purity for two nuclear bombs, if refined further - something it denies wanting or planning - Israel has redoubled threats to launch pre-emptive military strikes if international diplomacy fails.
"Iran is continuing to lie to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The agency's capitulation to Iranian pressure is a black stain on its record," Netanyahu told his cabinet in televised remarks.
"If the IAEA becomes a political organization, then its oversight activity in Iran is without significance, as will be its reports on Iran's nuclear activity."
The IAEA did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The agency reported that after years of investigation and lack of progress, Iran had given a satisfactory answer to explain one of three sites at which uranium particles had been detected.
Those particles could be explained by the presence of a Soviet-operated mine and lab there and the IAEA had no further questions, a senior diplomat in Vienna said.
In an apparent reference to this, Netanyahu said: "Iran's excuses ... regarding the finding of nuclear material in prohibited locations are not only unreliable, they are technically impossible."
However, the Vienna diplomat also told Reuters the IAEA's assessment remained that Iran carried out explosives testing there decades ago that was relevant to nuclear weapons.
After former US President Donald Trump pulled out of that deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran breached the deal and moved beyond its enrichment level of 3.65 percent purity. By early 2021, as the new Biden administration signaled its readiness to re-enter the agreement, Tehran adopted a tough position and began enriching up to 20 and then 60-percent, to the point IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has called the deal an "empty shell" and diplomats say there are scant chances of reviving it.
Netanyahu has previously said that 90-percent enrichment by Iran is a "red line" that could trigger pre-emptive strikes. Experts are divided, however, on whether Israel - despite having an advanced military believed to be nuclear-armed - can deal lasting damage to Iran's distant, dispersed and well-defended facilities.
"In the event that we reach decision-point, where the two options are the Iranians breaking out to a bomb or us taking action, we will take action," Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz, a member of Netanyahu's national security cabinet, said.
"We are making all of the preparations at this very moment," Katz told Galey Israel radio.
With reporting by Reuters