Page 10 - MEOG Week 37 2021

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

Iran, IAEA strike stopgap

deal to continue monitoring

IRAN IRAN and the International Atomic Energy how this was to be done.
Agency (IAEA) on September 12 agreed a new Grossi said the agreement on servicing the
stopgap monitoring arrangement for the Iranian cameras would provide for continuity of nuclear
nuclear programme that will give negotiators programme knowledge for his inspectors, some-
some breathing space to get talks restarted on thing which was about to be lost. It would be
reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, or JCPOA. retained even though his inspectors would not
The US and Europe’s major powers have been have immediate access to the film on the camera,
growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of he added.
access to the programme that has faced inspec- Grossi is to return to Tehran at a later date for
tors of the watchdog in recent weeks. what was described in the statement as “high-
The agreement permits IAEA inspectors to level consultations with the government of the
install new memory cards into watchdog cam- Islamic Republic of Iran”. The talks will aim to
eras monitoring the nuclear programme. Rafael reconfigure the inspections process.
Grossi, head of the IAEA, struck the deal in Teh- Iran’s parliament in February ordered the
ran after two hours of talks. government to withdraw from the agreement
If the talks had ended in failure, the US, UK, covering the UN inspections.
France and Germany might have moved to table This left the IAEA increasingly blinded as to
a motion of censure against Iran that would have how Iran was developing its nuclear programme.
been passed to the UN security council. The tactic was seen as pursued by hardliners as
Grossi had been preparing to report to the part of Raisi’s election campaign and as a method
IAEA that his ad hoc agreements to monitor the of putting pressure on the US to make more con-
nuclear programme struck in February had in cessions in the process of reviving the JCPOA.
effect collapsed. Iran’s government, now led by The JCPOA, designed to provide monitoring
hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, had been blocking and controls that will ensure Iran’s nuclear pro-
a visit by Grossi. gramme remains entirely civilian in return for
The new arrangement also means the existing the shielding of Tehran from heavy sanctions,
memory cards in the cameras showing Iranian was unilaterally abandoned by former US presi-
activity at its main nuclear sites will be kept in dent Donald Trump in May 2018.
Iran under what is described as a joint seal. But his successor Joe Biden wants to negotiate
The deal also says the cameras can be ser- a way to restore US participation in the JCPOA,
viced. No further details on this were given in as well as full US and Iranian compliance with it.
a joint statement from Iran and the IAEA, apart Iran has increasingly stepped up its non-compli-
from the fact that the two sides had agreed on ance since the Trump exit from the deal.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 15•September•2021