IAEA awaits ‘clarification’ on military aspects of Iran programme

The International Atomic Energy Authority has said it is waiting for clarification this week on several technical issues relating to “military dimensions” to Iran’s nuclear programme.

Speaking at the Munich security conference on Sunday, Yukiya Amano, IAEA chief, said a meeting had been scheduled with Iran for February 8 to discuss these outstanding, “more difficult” questions which the agency had left over from earlier negotiations.

The IAEA is waiting to resolve six technical issues on the possible military use of nuclear products, Mr Amano said. Progress was “encouraging”, he added.

Among the outstanding questions is the production of polonium at a research reactor in Tehran. While the reactor is subject to full IAEA safeguard procedures, the small amount of polonium it is allowed to produce has both civilian and military uses.

Mr Amano said the other existing steps required of Iran under the interim sanctions-relief deal signed in November were “being implemented as planned”.

On the sidelines of the conference, John Kerry, US secretary of state, and his European counterparts met Javad Zarif, Iranian foreign minister, in a series of bilateral talks to discuss implementation of a final, complete deal that will supplant the interim agreement.

Iran and the P5+1 powers – the permanent members of the UN security council plus Germany – must resolve all remaining differences over Iran’s enrichment programme or else see the limited sanctions relief under the November deal reversed.

Negotiations over a final deal will begin in Vienna on February 18, according to the P5+1’s lead negotiator, Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign affairs chief.

Appearing on a panel, Mr Zarif said the deal would “need to have options that are palatable to both sides” and warned that “illusions” persisted about Iran’s aims and capabilities.

Iran had met its side of the bargain, he said, and the Iranian people were waiting to see that the west stuck to its side. “Believe me, [the west] does not possess the monopoly on mistrust,” Mr Zarif said.

The clock was set ticking on the final deal negotiations last month, when the International Atomic Energy Authority confirmed Iran had stopped enriching uranium above 5 per cent and begun to dismantle its existing stockpile already enriched to 20 per cent.

Iran in return is to receive around $7bn of limited sanctions relief. The deal will see restrictions on insurance and other financial products related to crude oil exports lifted, as well as restrictions on the trade of precious metal, and also the unfreezing of $4.2bn in Iranian funds held by foreign central banks.

The first tranche of unfrozen foreign funds – worth about $550m – was unfrozen and returned to Iran on Saturday.

FT.com