A statement issued last week by Yukiya Amano, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, emphasizes that the organization continues to be concerned about possible clandestine elements in Iran’s nuclear program oriented toward the production of a nuclear weapon:
The Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of nuclear material declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement. But we are not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.
The statement was followed by declarations from top Iranian officials committing the Islamic republic to making continued progress on both Tehran’s uranium and plutonium infrastructure, and insisting that the country would never suspend uranium enrichment or its plutonium ambitions, as has been called for by half a dozen United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s nuclear chief, declared over the weekend that Iran would never cease work on its Arak facility:
Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi has said Tehran will never abandon the Arak heavy water reactor, considering it a “red line” in talks with world powers, media reported Sunday.
“Your actions and words show you don’t want us to have the Arak heavy water reactor which means you want to deprive us of our rights,” Salehi was quoted as saying by the website of state broadcaster IRIB.
“But you should know that it is a red line which we will never cross, likewise enrichment” of uranium.
Top analysts – including those sympathetic to engagement with the Islamic republic – have described the Arak facility as as a plutonium bomb factory. For their part – per a weekend report by the Wall Street Journal – U.S. officials “have said they no longer believe it is feasible or practical to reach an agreement with Iran that completely dismantles its nuclear program,” and more specifically Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts.
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