Salehi Underlines Settlement of PMD Issues by December 15

(FNA)- Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi reiterated the necessity for the IAEA to come up with a conclusion and close the case with allegations about Iran's past nuclear activities by mid December.

"Based on the agreement with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano, the issue with the PMD (Possible Military Dimension) should be resolved by December 15, i.e. the end of this year," Salehi said on Tuesday.

"According to this agreement, the IAEA will present its report to the Board of Governors, while implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (i.e. the Vienna agreement) will continue separate from the results of this report," he added.

Salehi underlined that Iran strongly rejects having done any military nuclear activity in the past, and wants a closure of this issue within a political-technical framework to prevent any possible future excuse-seeking.

In relevant remarks earlier this month, Amano said in uncertain remarks that his organization might eventually prepare a report on PMD by the end of 2015.

 "With Iran's cooperation, I think, IAEA can give a report on verification of the issue related to PMD by the end of the current year," IAEA Chief said.

Iran has repeatedly urged that it wants an IAEA report to announce final results of its investigations about the PMD issue, reiterating that it does not want the PMD issue to remain open after a deal with the world powers.

The PMD has become a persistent bone of contention in the talks between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog. During the last year Iran has removed 16 of the 18 questions and ambiguities that the IAEA has presented with regard to Tehran's nuclear activities, and the country has recently provided the needed answers and documents for the 17 point.

Iran has sped up its cooperation with the IAEA in the last two years to bring the PMD issue to a closure as fast as possible, but the nuclear watchdog has avoided report the removal of each of the ambiguities and questions that have been answered by Iran, in violation of the agency's initial agreement with Tehran. The two sides had initially agreed that they would cooperate to remove any uncertainty about Iran's past nuclear activities item by item and would deal with the next item in their 18-point list only after the IAEA reports that it has been convinced by Iran's answers about the last item in the list and declare that the relevant ambiguity has been removed.

Yet, the PMD allegations against the country have remained a persistent point of difference between the two sides. The accusations are based on alleged information derived from a laptop computer that Iran's armed opposition, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, PMOI and NCRI), claims to have stolen from Iranian nuclear scientists and later presented to the US spying agencies.

Renowned American investigative journalist Gareth Porter has in the last two years explained how the laptop documents were forged by Israel's Mossad spy agency in different articles and TV interviews, specially in his latest masterpiece 'Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare'.

In mid June, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister and senior negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi said alleged documents and accusations about Iran's past nuclear activities are untrue and Iran wants to see this proved and declared to the world.

"Iran wants to be exonerated from the PMD case and it should be become clear that the PMD cases have been false and during the negotiations, we pressure the opposite side and insist that the fate of this case should come under light within the framework of the agreement,"Araqchi said in an interview with the state TV on June 17 before leaving Tehran for Vienna to participate in nuclear talks with his counterparts from the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany).

He stressed that the PMD allegations have been fabricated and fed into the world public opinion, specially in the West. "It should be made clear that all of them are lies and false claims."

Araqchi said both Iran and the world powers are seeking to find ways to enable the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify Iran's previous nuclear activities, and "we are still having consultation in this regard".

Araqchi's remarks came after US Secretary of State John Kerry said a day earlier on June 16 that a full accounting of Iran's PMD issue is not necessarily critical to reaching a nuclear deal with Tehran.

Kerry said the US and its negotiating partners are "not fixated" on the issue of so-called "possible military dimensions" because they already have a complete picture of Iran's past activities. He said they are more concerned that those activities have stopped and about what Iran might do in the future.

Amano had travelled to Tehran early July to hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani.

Earlier in a statement, the IAEA announced that the main purpose of Amano's visit to Iran was to accelerate the trend of striking a final agreement and resolving the remaining issues.

"We made progress to move ahead during the meetings in Tehran," Amano told reporters in front of Palais Coburg.

"If Tehran and the major world power could reach a final nuclear deal, IAEA is ready to implement nuclear issue related to Comprehensive Joint Plan of Action (CJPOA)," IAEA Chief stressed.

Amano, during a meeting with President Rouhani, appreciated the Islamic Republic’s cooperation with the IAEA, saying that the country has always abided by its commitments. He also underlined progress in exchanging information on Iran's nuclear program.

Also after Amano ended his talks with senior Iranian officials in Tehran earlier this month, Iran's Envoy to the IAEA Reza Najafi underlined that Tehran and IAEA have reached a general understanding on speeding up settlement of the remaining differences.

"The two sides reached a general understanding on the time framework and continuation of cooperation by taking considerations of Iran and IAEA into account," Najafi said.

He pointed to Amano's meeting with Iranian officials in Tehran, and said, "Amano's meetings with Iranian officials were held in an interactive atmosphere … paving the way for the removal of concerns."