Bloomberg: West to Draft New Guidelines for IAEA Inspectors' Monitoring in Iran

Tehran - ISNA - Three officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, told the American media outlet that Western countries are preparing new guidelines for IAEA inspectors at the upcoming Board of Governors meeting to determine the status of Tehran's nuclear stockpiles.

The Board of Governors meeting will be held from Wednesday, November 19, to Friday, November 21. Since the legal document for the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1, UN Security Council Resolution 2231, expired on October 18, the issue of monitoring the nuclear deal's implementation is off the Board of Governors' agenda.

Iran suspended cooperation with the Agency following the aggressive attacks by the US and Israel on its territorial integrity and national sovereignty in June, which targeted its atomic facilities under the Safeguards Agreement.

Although the parties later reached an agreement in Egypt on a new modality for cooperation—which provided a level of access for IAEA inspectors to visit Iranian atomic facilities, except for the bombed sites in Isfahan, Fordow, and Natanz—concerns remain.

The Agency has raised speculations about the location of Iran's high-enriched uranium stockpile after the enrichment facilities were targeted in June. Iranian officials have stated that these materials are buried under the debris of the bombed facilities.

In a report on the matter, Bloomberg News claimed: Diplomats say Iran is ignoring international calls to cooperate with the IAEA and resume nuclear talks with the US, months after a tense stalemate following aerial attacks on Iran by Israel.

The Israeli attacks on Iran took place in the middle of indirect talks between Iran and the US regarding a nuclear agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, which Iran described as a "betrayal of diplomacy."

Iranian officials emphasized that Iran has never turned away from negotiation, but before any talks, a guarantee must be provided that aggressive attacks against Iran will not be repeated.

Bloomberg wrote: The status of Iran's nuclear program, including the unknown conditions and location of its near-weapons-grade uranium stockpile, will be the subject of next week's IAEA meeting in Vienna. According to three officials who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, Western countries at the meeting are set to prepare new guidelines for Agency inspectors to determine the status of Tehran's nuclear material stockpiles.

A senior Western diplomat said the IAEA is ready to resume inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities immediately, but Iran insists that these inspections are still too dangerous following the aerial attacks by Israel and the US.

The media outlet reported: Diplomats say the consensus on the next step [by the West] is dissolving, with some Western countries seeking to apply more pressure on Iran by aiming to cut off its scientists' access to the Agency's technical cooperation in areas like nuclear medicine. Other countries warned that cutting off all support for Iran might be counterproductive and increase the likelihood of the country withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Another diplomat said that "even if Iran immediately submits to inspections and fully cooperates with the Agency, recovering confidence about the fate of Iran's nuclear stockpile could take years. The containers holding these materials may have been destroyed, releasing quantities equivalent to [several] kilograms of uranium into the environment."

According to the diplomat, "The June attacks did not end concerns about the country's nuclear program; they merely opened a new chapter."

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