VIENNA: The UN nuclear chief said yesterday there was “still a long way to go” to resolve a decade-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme, a note of caution days after Tehran curbed its atomic activity under an interim deal with world powers.
Yukiya Amano of International Atomic Energy Agency made the comment as he won broad backing from the IAEA’s 35-nation board for its expanded role in Iran to check that it complies with the accord over the next six months.
Many governments said they would help pay the estimated $8m IAEA needs to inspect Iranian nuclear sites under the deal, which took effect on Monday, diplomats who attended a closed-door meeting said.
IAEA will nearly double the number of people it has working on Iran. Amano said the interim agreement, under which Iran will get relief from some economic sanctions, was an “important step forward towards achieving a comprehensive solution” to the nuclear dispute.
He told a news conference it would take “quite a long time” to resolve all outstanding issues, including a long-running IAEA probe into suspicions that Iran may have carried out research relevant for the development of nuclear weapons.
In the deal with the US, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia, Iran agreed to suspend its most sensitive nuclear activity in exchange for a limited easing of sanctions that are battering its oil-dependent economy.
After years of increasing economic isolation, Iran, under President Hassan Rowhani, is seeking “constructive engagement” with the world, including the US which Iranian politicians refer to as the “Great Satan”.
The deal in Geneva in November is designed to buy time for talks on a final settlement of the dispute over an Iranian nuclear programme Tehran says is peaceful but the West fears may have military aims. Those talks — expected in February — are likely to be more difficult than last year’s, diplomats say, as the West is likely to seek a significant scaling back of Iran’s uranium enrichment activity.
Refined uranium can provide fuel for nuclear power plants, Iran’s stated aim, or provide weapons material if processed much further, which Western states fear may be the real goal.
IAEA inspects Iranian nuclear facilities regularly to ensure there is no diversion of material for military purposes. That work will now increase.
Until now, it IAEA had one-to-two teams of two inspectors each in Iran most of the time as well as experts working on the Iran file at its headquarters.
“We will need to nearly double the staff resources devoted to verification in Iran,” Amano said. “We will need to significantly increase the frequency of the verification activities we are conducting.” Agencies
