IAEA: No Access to Iran Monitoring Data Since February

In comments the IAEA seems to be trying to spin as non-compliance, but which should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention to the nuclear talks and monitoring deals, the IAEA has reported that they have been unable to access digital monitoring data from Iran’s program since February.

In mid-February, Iran and the IAEA made an agreement on a new deal which provided reduced access to investigators, in keeping with Iran’s parliament calling for reduced voluntary cooperation. This came in the form of a 3-month access deal, which was extended last week to take it through Iran’s upcoming election.

The IAEA’s report that they didn’t have access to the digital data, then, is just a reiteration that the access deal they announced in February remains in place. The IAEA went a step further, claiming they cannot estimate the size of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile without this data.

This is simply untrue, as a point of fact is that the IAEA has been consistently releasing estimates since February. In fact, today’s report included such an estimate, while saying it could not verify the exact figure.

Iran has been very forthcoming with the IAEA on which types of centrifuges are used, how many, and what sort of feedstock is going into them. This makes it fairly trivial to estimate what is coming out, and with no evidence of any inaccuracies in that data suggesting it isn’t verified is quibbling, implying uncertainty and creating unwarranted suspicion.