Jerusalem mum on Iran nuke report, which may spell end of sanctions

The Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel that it has no immediate comment on the IAEA assessment of Iran’s past nuclear work.

The report is significant in coming down on the side of allegations by the US and other nations critical of Iran’s nuclear program that Tehran engaged in trying to make such arms.

Still, the agency says its findings were an assessment, suggesting that it couldn’t deliver an unequivocal ruling on whether the suspicions were valid.

The lack of a clear-cut answer on Iran’s past nuclear work will likely be instrumental in paving the way for the implementation of the nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions on Iran.

The report also suggested that not all information it was interested in was made available by Tehran, making its conclusions less black and white than it would have been had it received full cooperation.

The July 14 nuclear deal co-engineered by Iran and the US calls on Tehran to “fully implement” the plan with the IAEA to wrap up its investigation. But it only committed Tehran to timetables in providing explanations and information of its own choosing to the agency in time to allow the IAEA to draw up its December report. It says nothing about the kind of information required.

The IAEA’s 35-nation board then is scheduled to approve a resolution drawn up by six nations that signed the deal with Iran — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — that puts the issue to rest.

— Raphael Ahren, Times of Israel staff and agencies