Despite a UN report that Iran had been caught breaching international sanctions by acquiring materials for its Arak nuclear facility, a State Department spokesperson said yesterday that the public was “just going to have to trust” that Iran wasn’t in violation of last year’s Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) agreement, the terms of which are largely secret.

State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki stated that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, had confirmed that Iran was still operating within the terms of the JPOA, which was agreed to by Iran and major Western powers. Psaki was questioned by the Associated Press’ Matt Lee as to whether the recent reports that Iran was failing to disclose that it had acquired materials for the Arak heavy-water reactor constituted a breach of the JPOA. In yesterday’s briefing, Psaki acknowledged that Iran was cheating on its international obligations, but not on the terms of the JPOA.

MS. PSAKI: Iran has long been in noncompliance with its Security Council obligations and remains so.

QUESTION: Right.

MS. PSAKI: And we’ve spoken to that, and that’s obviously not breaking news.

QUESTION: And this is a violation of that?

MS. PSAKI: I would point you to the UN, but it’s not new that they’ve been in violation.

QUESTION: Okay.

MS. PSAKI: And certainly, this is an example – these reports – without confirming them. They are not in violation of the JPOA, and that remains the case.

QUESTION: So the JPOA, to your mind, superseded the sanction – the UN sanctions – and violations of those sanctions – of the UN sanctions – are not all necessarily violations of the JPOA?

MS. PSAKI: Correct, but the JPOA, as we all know, is temporary. It’s interim. It’s not meant to be a final, lasting, comprehensive agreement. That’s why we want a comprehensive agreement.

QUESTION: But – and it is not a violation of the JPOA, why?

MS. PSAKI: I would – I think we – there are reviews, as you know, Matt, by the IAEA of whether there are JPOA – whether Iran is meeting its obligations. They’re meeting their obligations; that hasn’t changed. There are certain requirements that are very technical of both the UN Security Council obligations and, separately, of the JPOA. There – I just gave you the answer on whether they’re violating each of them.

QUESTION: Well, you’re saying – okay. But can you point me to the JPOA – the bit in the JPOA that would back that up?

MS. PSAKI: I’m sure we can get you a technical answer, Matt, on —

QUESTION: Because I’m not sure that one – a public one has ever been presented. So it’s very hard to tell if they are complying or not complying, because —

MS. PSAKI: Well, the IAEA is a well-respected international organization —

QUESTION: — we don’t know.

MS. PSAKI: — that makes that evaluation, and they haven’t made the —

QUESTION: On the JPOA?

MS. PSAKI: They have not made the evaluation that they’re – that they have violated. They’ve verified that they’re abiding by it.

QUESTION: Right, but if we don’t know what the details of the JPOA are – and I don’t believe we do – how do we know? How do we know?

MS. PSAKI: I guess you’re going to have to trust the IAEA, Matt.

QUESTION: Uh-huh, okay.

The Director General of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, said in an interview last month that Iran had complied with the terms of the JPA, but also largely qualified that judgment:

We have two problems: one is that Iran is not fully cooperating with the Agency to clarify the information that may have military aspects. Another problem is that Iran is not allowing us to implement a more powerful verification tool which is called an “Additional Protocol”. Agreement was not reached. That ball is still in play, which is good news. We ask Iran to fully cooperate with us so that we can provide the assurance that all the activities in Iran is in peaceful purpose. …

Iran is implementing the agreement in the Joint Plan of Action and we can verify that they are honoring the commitment that they have made and we give the assurance every month, but the problem is that we cannot yet give the assurance that all nuclear activities in Iran are for peaceful purposes. We cannot yet give a clean bill of health.

However, parts of the publicly-available segments of the JPOA (.pdf) call for Iran to cooperate with the IAEA.

Provision of specified information to the IAEA, including information on Iran’s plans for nuclear facilities, a description of each building on each nuclear site, a description of the scale of operations for each location engaged in specified nuclear activities, information on uranium mines and mills, and information on source material. This information would be provided within three months of the adoption of these measures.

The lack of full cooperation attested to by Amano is a violation of the wording of the JPOA.

Secretary of State John Kerry, citing the IAEA, also criticized Iran for its lack of cooperation, just prior to agreeing to a seven-month extension of the JPOA last month:

We regret, however, that the Director General was not able to report greater Iranian cooperation with the Agency’s efforts to resolve all present and past issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program. In particular, the Director General notes Iran has still not implemented the two practical measures it had committed to fulfill by August 25 under the IAEA-Iran Framework for Cooperation. It is unfortunate that Iran did not take the opportunity of two recent technical meetings to provide the substantive cooperation necessary to clarify these two measures, both of which concern the possible military dimensions (PMD) of Iran’s nuclear program. The Director General notes in his report that the IAEA and Iran will meet again in the near future and that, in preparation for this meeting, the Agency will provide Iran with additional questions. We call on Iran immediately and substantively to implement these outstanding practical measures.

In an interview this week (embedded below), The Wall Street Journal‘s Bret Stephens explained how Iran has, indeed, been cheating on the JPOA:

Iran was already cheating. We knew they were cheating by feeding uranium into an advanced centrifuge, of testing new centrifuges more efficient centrifuges We knew that from the International Atomic Energy Agency that they were denying U N inspectors access to certain key sites where we suspect they’re conducting a weapon ization program. We’ve known for very long time that they have a very active network of subterranean nuclear parts suppliers and they’ve been … trying to get supplies for this plutonium reactor that they have the city of Arak, that’s what  these latest allegations concern.

[Photo: U.S. Department of State / YouTube ]