Rejecting Netanyahu criticism, IAEA says it visited all Iranian nuclear sites

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency rejects Israel’s claims that Iran continues to maintain secret facilities related to its nuclear program that the watchdog has not examined, saying it has visited “all the sites and locations in Iran which it needed to visit.”

The statement from IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week revealed to the UN General Assembly what he said was a previously unknown nuclear site in Tehran.

“As I stated in my reports to the IAEA Board of Governors, evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities for Iran remain ongoing,” Amano says. “The Agency continues to evaluate Iran’s declarations…and has conducted complementary accesses…to all the sites and locations in Iran which it needed to visit.

“The Agency…does not take any information at face value,” Amano insists. “In line with established safeguards practices, all information obtained, including from third parties, is subject to rigorous review and assessed together with other available information to arrive at an independent assessment based on the Agency’s own expertise. It is not the practice of the Agency to publicly discuss issues related to any such information.

“The Agency’s work related to nuclear verification is and must always be impartial, factual, and professional. In order to maintain credibility, the Agency’s independence in relation to the implementation of verification activities is of paramount importance.

“It should be noted that under the existing verification framework the Agency sends inspectors to sites and locations only when needed,” Amano says.

— Stuart Winer