Iran’s Nuclear Dossier Needs New Initiatives

- There are two obstacles on the path of the sixth round of talks between Iran and IAEA. The first issue is about the claimed studies. The IAEA states that it has documents which are credible but it cannot present them to Iran and Iran must respond to these claims. Iran says that the IAEA must give a copy of these documents to Iran so that it can accurately respond to them. The IAEA states that the country which has given these documents has asked us not to present them to Iran. This matter has become a major issue which will hopefully be solved in this round of negotiations.

- The second issue is the issue of visiting the Parchin site. Iran states that Parchin is a military zone and no nuclear activity occurs in the area and the IAEA is obliged to only visit nuclear centers. Iran further stresses that the IAEA has visited Parchin in 2005 and later announced that there was no nuclear activity there, thus, revisiting this site bears no merit.

- Nevertheless, Iran has agreed with the IAEA’s visit of this site under the condition that this visit would be made in a modality where the IAEA commitments vis-a-vis Iran and vice versa are thoroughly defined. The issue of Parchin is another challenge in the nuclear dossier. Iran does not have any problems with regard to visiting Parchin, but it states that the IAEA must close the file of the military site of Parchin after its visit. But the IAEA does not agree with this condition.

- A study of the collection of all the evidence shows that the possibility of reaching an agreement is less than 10%, unless the IAEA returns to its main duty which is technical and legal matters. Unfortunately, the IAEA, at the present time, has become very political and takes political positions under the pressure of Israel and the US. Mr. Amano’s actions are totally biased and his positions are made outside the legal and international status of the Director General.

- It seems that we must first solve our problems with the US and then hope for a solution to our discussions with the IAEA. If the IAEA sticks to its legal and technical obligations, the issues will be solved in a shorter period of time. But some issues beyond technical and legal matters are proposed in this regard which prevent any agreement from being made.

- We must hope that the reports published based on the leakage of information about Iran’s nuclear program by the IAEA prove to be false, for the IAEA is a credible international organization and if these reports prove to be true, the IAEA’s reputation will seriously be damaged.  These accusations are very serious and we are not in any position to reject or approve them. If the Islamic Republic of Iran really believes that, beside the open information which exists in IAEA reports, the IAEA has given information to Israel, then it can file a complaint against this agency in an international tribunal.

- The IAEA does not publish its reports; it instead presents them to the member countries and it is these countries which give these reports to the news agencies. According to the IAEA Rules and Procedures, all activities must be done secretly.

- In his memoir, Hans Blix has said that some members of the IAEA team leaked some information with regard to their activities in Iraq, but this does not prove that the same thing happens today. Nevertheless, if this matter is serious, then Iran must refer it to an international tribunal. An international organization such as the IAEA cannot easily be accused of leaking information.

- New initiatives must be proposed in Iran’s nuclear dossier and the problems will not be solved by repeating the old trend. This path has not reached a conclusion. Under the present circumstances, we must understand that this trend must certainly be changed and the present situation is not to Iran’s benefit.