In the course of reducing cooperation with the IAEA by order of parliament, Iran made a deal in February for “reduced access” inspections. The three-month deal ended snap inspections, and brought access down to the minimum required under present deals, without the voluntary access previously given.
The three-month plan worked well, and if there was something wrong with it, it was three months ago, and this week it will expire. The IAEA confirms talks are ongoing with Iran in trying to extend the deal.
At the time the hope seemed to be for diplomacy to get going, and three months seemed a good window. At this point the talks are still in their infancy, and Iran’s parliament is presumably not willing to enhance access without progress.
The Rouhani government is keen to do enough to satisfy parliament without undermining their IAEA relationship. This likely means they will come to a deal to extend the limited access in some manner, though with expiration coming Friday, they’ll have to hurry.
Something for nothing? From Iran?
That fantasy is driving US policy, and it is simply stupid.
Iran signed the NPT in 1968, ratified the same in 1970. We felt so good about that, we turned Iraq against Iran, feeding Iraq chemical weapons. That war lasted 10 years. We fulled instigated it.
We have been after oil in Iran, Syria (as I type this, our troops are parked on top of a Syrian oil field – imagine that….). We have Israel the green light to extract oil and natural gas from the fields in occupied territories; Gaza and the Golan Heights.
If a country has oil fields, it is in big trouble from the beacon of freedom.
The IAEA inspectors should be expelled…!
They have been monitoring things in Iran. Since 1970, the year Iran ratified the NPT.