Iran: IAEA inspectors to return after Supreme National Security Council approval

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday that there must be “no exemption or exception” with the access his inspectors have to key Iranian nuclear facilities, including those bombed by U.S. warplanes in June.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the IAEA, told reporters in Washington that inspectors must go back into Iran as soon as possible to assess the state of the Iranian nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, the targets of the American military strikes. His comments came the same day that Tehran announced it would allow IAEA inspectors back into the country to oversee the refueling process at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

But both sides said that those limited inspections at Bushehr don’t represent the resumption of full cooperation between Iran and the IAEA, the United Nations’ key nuclear watchdog agency.

Without a significant IAEA presence inside Iran, it’s difficult to know the actual state of its nuclear program. It’s hard to know whether Iran is racing to rebuild the capabilities that U.S. airstrikes damaged or destroyed and if it is taking any steps to accelerate parts of the program that could be used to build a weapon.

“It is obvious that we have to go back there as soon as possible,” Mr. Grossi told The Washington Times. “If the inspected state says that you cannot have access, they have to show why you can’t have access. In many cases, there are what we call ’alternatives’ that can be offered.”

He said the sites bombed by the U.S. must still be inspected.

“There is no exemption or exception when it comes to what we need to inspect,” he said. “We need to inspect all the places and the sites that are relevant, and this includes these places.”

Before Mr. Grossi spoke in Washington, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that IAEA nuclear inspectors will return to Iran to oversee the refueling process at the Bushehr plant.

Mr. Araghchi added that no formal framework has been finalized between Tehran and the IAEA.

Still, the Bushehr inspections will be the first such IAEA work done in Iran over the past two months. Shortly after the U.S. airstrikes, Iran’s parliament passed a law that halted all cooperation with the agency.

Since the law passed, Iran has held two rounds of talks with IAEA officials to work out a framework for future inspections.

Mr. Grossi said he understood the Iranians’ concerns and was willing to hear them out.

“While we respect legislation of member states, not only Iran, about procedures that must be in place, this national legislation creates obligations for Iran, not for the IAEA,” he said.

Iran’s approach to the IAEA, and in particular its new law limiting cooperation with the body, sparked international outrage, especially from those already skeptical of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

British, French and German officials rebuked Iran’s decision to halt cooperation with the IAEA in July and promised to reimpose significant economic sanctions at the end of August.

Those sanctions would include a harsh arms export embargo, along with asset seizures and travel restrictions for select Iranian officials. It’s unclear whether Iran’s decision to allow IAEA inspectors back into the country will influence Europe’s decision-making on sanctions.

After the Tuesday meeting, reports indicated that European diplomats were disappointed in the lack of details provided by Iran.

Ultimately, Europe has demanded that Iran allow IAEA inspectors back into the country, provide transparency on its current nuclear stockpile and provide proof that it’s not building a nuclear arsenal.

Analysts warn that Iran tends to use delaying tactics in diplomacy, a strategy Western officials have grown tired of.

“The Iranian response has basically been ’we can’t show you the highly enriched uranium. Maybe we’ll do something on the IAEA stuff.’ But that’s just not enough,” said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

“While the Iranians are holding back on a lot of the things the Europeans want, and given that if you don’t use snapback [sanctions], it goes away forever, I think that high bar is something the Europeans are interested in maintaining,” he said.

There is an Oct. 18 deadline for parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — an Obama-era deal that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief — to trigger a mechanism in which some of those lifted sanctions are put back in place, or “snapped back.” Britain, France and Germany signed that deal, as did the U.S., China and Russia. President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA during his first term.

Russia is reportedly circulating a draft U.N. resolution that would extend the deadline for snapback sanctions by six months.