Iran to Limit IAEA Cooperation to Bare Minimum Legal Requirements

US-Backed IAEA Condemnation of Iran Backfires

Last week’s US-backed resolution in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a blanket condemnation of Iran’s entire nuclear program and demands that it halt all construction of an enrichment facility it legally reported in September has backfired.

Now, the Iranian government says it will limit cooperations with the IAEA to a bare minimum legally required under the terms of its membership in the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

This will have enormous ramifications for the 10 new uranium enrichment sites the government is calling to produce. Instead of keeping the IAEA appraised of the situation, the legal requirement will only mean they will permit IAEA inspections six months before the introduction of nuclear material.

Iran had been in talks with the international community on a third party enrichment deal, but those talks came to a screeching halt when Iran’s call for additional negotiations led to the IAEA condemnation. Iran says it will now produce all the enriched uranium it needs for its civilian power generation program as well as its medical isotope reactor on its own.

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.