The Iranian state nuclear agency has said they are hoping to enter direct “political talks” with the IAEA on recent issues over a site the IAEA wants to visit, saying they hope for a mutual understanding.
The latest IAEA report on Iran, which came with the usual concerns about Iran exceeding stockpile caps, also centered on the IAEA wanting access to another site of “concern,” which they visited in February 2019, but Iran refused to let them visit again.
The site in question was one Israel claimed was an atomic warehouse. Iran says it’s a carpet cleaners, and that the only documents claiming otherwise were fabricated by Israel in the first place.
The IAEA’s new chief wants to show he’s tough on Iran, but Iran maintains they’re only going to give access to places that the IAEA has a legitimate reason to visit, and says it requires open-sourced intelligence, not just Israel’s claims.
…. I’m impressed that Iran maintains a nuclear program with such prestige the facilities are …. apparently carpeted, and those carpets are regularly cleaned.
Persian rugs’ ain’t cheap, except in Iran maybe, but hot particles would probably bad for them either way.
IAEA..lol…isn’t this the same organization that tried to sneak a bomb into one of Iran’s nuke facilities?
One problem with inspections is that they can be abused for ulterior motives, such as targeting non-nuclear military sites, and just plain harassment for scoring political points.
Of course, both the US and Israel have a history of committing both abuses. The US even bragged about doing it to Saddam, after the invasion, but before the whole war turned into a fiasco and they stopped talking about it.
The opposite problem also exists, inspections refused can be hiding things. In this case, we have past IAEA assurances that Iran has been complying, and past public announcements that the US refuses to comply and Israel rejects the entire deal (which it tries to enforce anyway). Thus, the bad faith is clearly on the side of the US and Israel.