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Iran Pres. Orders No IAEA Cooperation 07/02 06:09
Iran's president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its
cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after American and
Israeli airstrikes hit its most-important nuclear facilities, likely further
limiting inspectors' ability to track Tehran's program that had been enriching
uranium to near weapons-grade levels.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran's president on Wednesday ordered
the country to suspend its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy
Agency after American and Israeli airstrikes hit its most-important nuclear
facilities, likely further limiting inspectors' ability to track Tehran's
program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.
The order by President Masoud Pezeshkian, however, included no timetables or
details about what that suspension would entail. However, Iranian Foreign
Minister Abbas Araghchi signaled in a CBS News interview that Tehran still
would be willing to continue negotiations with the United States.
"I don't think negotiations will restart as quickly as that," Araghchi said,
referring to Trump's comments that talks could start as early as this week.
However, he added: "The doors of diplomacy will never slam shut."
Pressure tactic
Iran has limited IAEA inspections in the past as a pressure tactic in
negotiating with the West -- though as of right now Tehran has denied that
there's any immediate plans to resume talks with the United States that had
been upended by the 12-day Iran-Israel war.
Iranian state television announced Pezeshkian's order, which followed a law
passed by Iran's parliament to suspend that cooperation. The bill already
received the approval of Iran's constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council,
on Thursday, and likely the support of the country's Supreme National Security
Council, which Pezeshkian chairs.
"The government is mandated to immediately suspend all cooperation with the
International Atomic Energy Agency under the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of
Nuclear Weapons and its related Safeguards Agreement," state television quoted
the bill as saying. "This suspension will remain in effect until certain
conditions are met, including the guaranteed security of nuclear facilities and
scientists."
It wasn't immediately clear what that would mean for the Vienna-based IAEA,
the United Nations' nuclear watchdog. The agency long has monitored Iran's
nuclear program and said that it was waiting for an official communication from
Iran on what the suspension meant.
Israel condemns the move
Iran's decision drew an immediate condemnation from Israeli Foreign Minister
Gideon Saar.
"Iran has just issued a scandalous announcement about suspending its
cooperation with the IAEA," he said in an X post. "This is a complete
renunciation of all its international nuclear obligations and commitments."
Saar urged European nations that were part of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal to
implement its so-called snapback clause. That would reimpose all U.N. sanctions
on it originally lifted by Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, if one of
its Western parties declares the Islamic Republic is out of compliance with it.
Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle
East, and the IAEA doesn't have access to its weapons-related facilities.
Details remains unclear
It's not known how Iran will implement this suspension. Iran's theocratic
government, there is room for the council to implement the bill as they see
fit. That means that everything lawmakers asked for might not be done.
However, Iran's move stops short of what experts feared the most. They had
been concerned that Tehran, in response to the war, could decide to fully end
its cooperation with the IAEA, abandon the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and
rush toward a bomb. That treaty has countries agree not to build or obtain
nuclear weapons and allows the IAEA to conduct inspections to verify that
countries correctly declared their programs.
Iran's 2015 nuclear deal allowed Iran to enrich uranium to 3.67% -- enough
to fuel a nuclear power plant, but far below the threshold of 90% needed for
weapons-grade uranium. It also drastically reduced Iran's stockpile of uranium,
limited its use of centrifuges and relied on the IAEA to oversee Tehran's
compliance through additional oversight. The IAEA served as the main assessor
of Iran's commitment to the deal.
But U.S. President Donald Trump, in his first term in 2018, unilaterally
withdrew Washington from the accord, insisting it wasn't tough enough and
didn't address Iran's missile program or its support for militant groups in the
wider Middle East. That set in motion years of tensions, including attacks at
sea and on land.
Iran had been enriching up to 60%, a short, technical step away from
weapons-grade levels. It also has enough of a stockpile to build multiple
nuclear bombs, should it choose to do so. Iran has long insisted its nuclear
program is for peaceful purposes, but the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies
and others say Tehran had an organized weapons program up until 2003.
Suspension comes after Israel, US airstrikes
Israeli airstrikes, which began June 13, decimated the upper ranks of Iran's
powerful Revolutionary Guard and targeted its arsenal of ballistic missiles.
The strikes also hit Iran's nuclear sites, which Israel claimed put Tehran
within reach of a nuclear weapon.
Iran has said the Israeli attacks killed 935 "Iranian citizens," including
38 children and 102 women. However, Iran has a long history of offering lower
death counts around unrest over political considerations.
The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group, which has provided
detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, has put the
death toll at 1,190 people killed, including 436 civilians and 435 security
force members. The attacks wounded another 4,475 people, the group said.
Meanwhile, it appears that Iranian officials now are assessing the damage
done by the American strikes conducted on the three nuclear sites on June 22,
including those at Fordo, a site built under a mountain about 100 kilometers
(60 miles) southwest of Tehran.
Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show
Iranian officials at Fordo on Monday likely examining the damage caused by
American bunker busters. Trucks could be seen in the images, as well as at
least one crane and an excavator at tunnels on the site. That corresponded to
images shot Sunday by Maxar Technologies similarly showing the ongoing work.
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