UN atomic chief says Iran meeting terms of nuclear deal

Yukiya Amano’s comments come as Trump considers backing out of agreement over alleged Iranian non-compliance

By Agencies and ToI Staff 11 September 2017, 4:23 pm

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Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Yukiya Amano of Japan waits for the start of the IAEA board of governors meeting at the International Center in Vienna, Austria, September 11, 2017. (AP/Ronald Zak)

The head of the UN agency monitoring Iran’s compliance with a deal crimping its nuclear program said Tehran is honoring the agreement — an assessment that the White House is questioning as it mulls upping the pressure on the Islamic Republic.

Yukiya Amano of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday that the terms Iran accepted “are being implemented.”

The US administration has faced two 90-day certification deadlines to state whether Iran was meeting the conditions needed to continue enjoying sanctions relief under the deal and has both times backed away from a showdown. But US President Donald Trump more recently has said he does not expect to certify Iran’s compliance again. The next deadline is in mid-October.

Amano spoke in Vienna at the start of a 35-nation IAEA board meeting.

Although Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany also signed on to the pact, Iran and the US were the key players. A US pullout could effectively kill the agreement, and lead Iran to quickly ramp up programs that could be used to make weapons.

In a speech Tuesday at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley pointed to Iranian violations of the “very flawed and very limited agreement.” But she indicated the US would likely not pull out of the accord, even if it declares Iran to be non-compliant.

“The Iran deal has so many flaws that it’s tempting to leave it. But, the deal was constructed in a way that makes leaving it less attractive,” she said.

Haley said the US may declare Iran to be in violation of the nuclear accord under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 without having to pull out of the deal, which she said allows the US to consider the “whole jigsaw puzzle” of Iran’s “long history of aggression” and not only “the Iranian regime’s technical violations of the JCPOA.”

Trump’s recently ousted former chief strategist Stephen Bannon said in a televised interview Sunday that while the national security establishment is urging Trump to verify Tehran is abiding by the landmark 2015 pact, his old boss is inclined to do otherwise.