IAEA Chief: Can’t Prove Iran Doesn’t Have Secret Nuclear Materials

Iran's Civilian Program Not Being Diverted, But Amano Unsatisfied

Underscoring just how impossible it is to convince the International Atomic Energy Agency of anything, IAEA chief Amano Yukiya today insisted that even though the IAEA is able to verify the non-diversion of Iranian nuclear material from its legal civilian program they are “not providing the necessary cooperation.”

So while Iran’s civilian enriched uranium is not being diverted anyplace, and its substantial civilian enrichment program has no military dimension, Amano can’t rule out the possibility that there is a whole separate program, with separate equipment and separate uranium, that he just doesn’t know about.

That’s literally the argument at this point, that even though its 100% proven that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful, it can’t be 100% proven that there’s not a second program somewhere that no one knows about, and “therefore we cannot conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

And it never possibility could be. Iran is a huge country, and it has natural uranium deposits in the ground, so no matter how extensive the “dialogue” is, there’s no way for the IAEA to have total informational awareness over the entire country and everything theoretically going on in every building.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.