Report: Iran Will Be Allowed to Inspect Controversial Nuke Site

The agreement seeks to resolve outstanding questions over nuclear research carried out at Parchin.

GettyImages-169896612crop
GettyImages-169896612crop

When international negotiators last month struck a landmark nuclear deal with Iran, they shunted a highly controversial set of questions about Iran’s past development of nuclear weapons into a confidential side agreement between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Now, the details of that agreement are beginning to emerge, with the Associated Press reporting Wednesday that Tehran will be allowed to use its own inspectors in the investigation of a site where Iran is believed to have carried out nuclear weapons research.

When international negotiators last month struck a landmark nuclear deal with Iran, they shunted a highly controversial set of questions about Iran’s past development of nuclear weapons into a confidential side agreement between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Now, the details of that agreement are beginning to emerge, with the Associated Press reporting Wednesday that Tehran will be allowed to use its own inspectors in the investigation of a site where Iran is believed to have carried out nuclear weapons research.

Access to that site, known as Parchin, was one of the key outstanding issues when the IAEA and Iran agreed to a road map to resolve questions about Tehran’s past weapons work. Hard-liners within the negotiating team — France, most importantly — wanted to see Iran come clean about its past work on nuclear weapons as part of a comprehensive nuclear accord. But Iranian negotiators indicated that such a move was a bridge too far. The agreement between Iran and the IAEA removed one of the final barriers to sealing an overall deal to ease sanctions against Iran in exchange for strict limits on its nuclear program.

According to the AP, the agreement between Iran and the IAEA requires Tehran to provide the agency with photos and video from sites at Parchin that inspectors are interested in. The document says the IAEA “will ensure the technical authenticity” but provides no details on the procedure for doing so.

It is unclear exactly how inspections will be carried out, and the AP report was changed during the course of the day Wednesday to strip out details about how sampling at Parchin would be carried out. Sampling is a powerful tool for detecting minute traces of nuclear residue long after facilities housing such materials have been cleaned out.

The secret agreement is sure to provide fodder for critics who argue that inspectors are being overly reliant on Iran’s goodwill in implementing the deal. On Wednesday, the White House sought to bat down such concerns.

“We are confident in the agency’s technical plans for investigating the possible military dimensions of Iran’s former program, issues that in some cases date back more than a decade,” White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. “When it comes to monitoring Iran’s behavior going forward, the IAEA has separately developed the most robust inspection regime ever peacefully negotiated to ensure Iran’s current program remains exclusively peaceful.”

Photo credit: ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/Getty Images

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