The IAEA has announced a temporary delay in talks with Iran on uranium traces found in the country. The delay could be as little as two weeks, but potentially longer, amid a growing focus on bigger issues.
The idea is that there is growing effort being made on a detente between the US and the rest of the P5+1 and Iran, and that the trivial traces found would ultimately be a distraction from that effort.
Though it is surprising to see the IAEA prioritize at all, they’ve selected an issue that is more readily resolvable for all sides, and delayed the uranium traces issue for which no good answer may exist.
The first trace was found two years ago, at an undeclared site that the IAEA wanted to visit. There was talk at the time of the IAEA inspectors contaminating it themselves, but no answer was ever agreed upon. Two recent visits this years turned up similar traces, hinting at some very small amounts of processing that was not documented. Iran has denied ever doing anything at those sites, leaving open where the traces came from.
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