Iran Agrees on Work Plan With IAEA

[struggle4progress]

Peter Crail

In July and August, Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held three rounds of talks aimed at resolving a number of outstanding verification issues regarding Tehran’s nuclear program. The talks concluded Aug. 21 with agreement on a work plan for Iran to answer long-standing questions regarding its nuclear activities and to formulate a “safeguards approach” for the Natanz uranium-enrichment facility. But the agreement failed to fully address the concerns of the United States and some European governments about Tehran’s program and they vowed to push for additional UN sanctions to curtail it.

The majority of the work plan outlines a phased process for Iran to provide clarifications on a set of outstanding issues previously identified by the IAEA. These outstanding questions relate to a number of clandestine nuclear activities which Iran failed to declare before the IAEA discovered them in 2003, as well as weapons-related projects the United States has accused Iran of carrying out. (See ACT, March 2006.)

According to the work plan, Iran has already provided clarifications to the IAEA regarding its undeclared experiments with plutonium separation during the 1990s which are consistent with the agency’s findings, thereby resolving the issue.

In addition to resolving outstanding issues, Iran has agreed to cooperate with the IAEA on preparing a safeguards approach and “facility attachment” for its Natanz uranium-enrichment facility with the aim of finalizing these arrangements by the end of September. The safeguards approach is intended to outline the types of inspection mechanisms that may be used at Natanz. The facility attachment specifies how these mechanisms are to be carried out ...

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2007_09/IranIAEA.asp

[azurnoir]

1. This should be big news

but I'm not holding my breath.

[bemildred]

2. Cheney ain't going to like this.

Incidentally, isn't it great that we don't have to listen to the constant stream of ignorant warmongering blather from Bolton any longer? In fact there are quite a few of these morons now "spending more time with their families". That is a good thing. And it looks like the Koreas are more or less to the point of badgering Bush about getting out of the way. In fact it's pretty much down to Iran, all the other "enemies" plus a lot of "friends" are crossing the street and going on about their business when they see us coming.

And every year Cheney gets older. One of these days he will keel over and there will be nothing science can do.