Potentially Deal-Shattering Report About Iran Inspections Has Some Issues

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- The Associated Press reported Wednesday that future oversight of Parchin, an Iranian military site suspected of hosting past nuclear weapons development over a decade ago, would be conducted by Iranian scientists rather than the International Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear inspectors.

Critics of the Iranian nuclear deal declared vindication, citing the report as evidence that the broader nuclear agreement negotiated between Iran, the U.S. and five world powers was flawed. "How does this not set a precedent for future inspections at suspicious military sites in Iran?" asked House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), suggesting that the Iranians would be entrusted to oversee their own nuclear inspections going forward.

But no sooner had the report surfaced than questions began to circulate about its underlying assertions and the accuracy of its claims. Hours after publication, nonproliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis noted on Twitter that the AP deleted several paragraphs that contained the most damning allegations about the way in which inspections would occur.



The above screenshot shows the original version of the AP report on the left, and the updated version on the right. Click to view larger.
The revised version of the exposé also scrubbed a paragraph that suggested IAEA inspectors would oversee Iranian scientists as they collected samples and photographs at Parchin, despite other parts of the report claiming that officials from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency would be barred from entering the facility.

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