France anticipates detailed IAEA report on Iran nuke work
Foreign Ministry spokesman says Paris expects UN atomic agency to provide 'all the information it possesses'
France said Monday that it expected complete transparency from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) when it issues a much-anticipated report this week on whether Iran previously carried out work related to nuclear weapons.
“France will with interest become aware of this report this week,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told a daily news briefing, according to Reuters. “We are expecting that the IAEA provides with the necessary detail all the information it possesses.”
The IAEA inquiry — aimed at answering 12 questions left open in an earlier report in November 2011 — formed part of a nuclear agreement Iran signed with global powers in July. Under the terms of the agreement, the US, Europe and the United Nations will ease sanctions on Iran in return for limits to the latter’s nuclear program.
Western officials have long believed that Iran was working on nuclear weapons technology at least until 2003 — a position strongly denied by Tehran. It was Iran’s refusal to provide sufficient detail about its nuclear program that prompted a series of UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions against the country, starting in 2006.
Diplomats are not expecting this week’s report to draw decisive conclusions either way. Last Thursday, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told the atomic agency’s 35-nation board that he could “not guarantee” that everything Iran is doing is peaceful.
On Sunday, Tehran upped the ante by threatening that the deal it signed with the six powers could flounder unless the probe into allegations of past weapons research was closed.
In June, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the IAEA report must “resolve our questions about it with specificity.” That statement was echoed Monday by France, which had taken the toughest stance during the talks with Iran.
According to the Wall Street Journal, an indecisive report is “unlikely to scuttle” the implementation of July’s nuclear accord in early 2016, although it could slow down the process.