Grossi: We Are Reviewing Iran’s Response on Three Suspicious Sites

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency says the review of Iran’s responses regarding uranium particles at three undeclared sites is ongoing. Iran recently announced that it has sent responses to the Agency’s questions and clarified ambiguity regarding one of these sites.

Rafael Grossi had emphasized during his March 5 visit to Tehran that without resolving the remaining issues between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, reaching an agreement to revive the JCPOA in Vienna would not be possible.

One of the important issues is the Agency’s questions about the discovery of radioactive materials, more precisely enriched uranium, at several undeclared sites of the Islamic Republic.

The Director General of the Agency, in an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, May 27 (April 27), stated that experts of this organization are still reviewing Iran’s responses regarding the source of uranium particles at three undeclared centers.

The Director General of the Agency provided no further details to the Associated Press about the specifics of Iran’s responses regarding the three remaining suspicious centers.

Clarification of One Site, Examination of Ambiguities at Three Sites

In December 2020, Reuters reported, citing informed sources, that uranium particles had been found at two Iranian nuclear sites. Shortly afterward, Agency inspectors found radioactive materials at four undeclared centers of the Islamic Republic and requested clarification regarding the source of these materials.

Grossi, during his last visit to Tehran last month, reached an agreement with Iranian officials on a three-month program to clarify existing ambiguities in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities, including regarding previously undeclared centers.

In a statement released after this visit, it was announced that Iran committed to providing responses to the Agency’s questions about the undeclared locations and the source of uranium found in them, along with supporting documents, by the end of the previous solar year.

According to ISNA news agency, the Head of the Atomic Energy Organization announced on April 6 at a press conference that ambiguities regarding one location of interest to the Agency have been cleared, and negotiations regarding three other locations are ongoing.

Mohammad Eslami told journalists that Iran sent documents to the Agency on March 19, 2022 to clarify the ambiguities, which have been reviewed, and Agency representatives will likely need to visit Tehran for final conclusions.

The Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, given the agreements reached with the Agency, expressed hope that the documents submitted to clarify ambiguities would be reviewed by June.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former Prime minister, claimed in his speech to the UN General Assembly in 2018 that Israeli agents obtained and removed documents and records of the Islamic Republic’s secret nuclear activities from a warehouse in the village of Turquzabad, a suburb of Karaj near the city of Rey.

The Islamic Republic at that time claimed that the location Netanyahu showed pictures of was a carpet-washing workshop. One year later, in September 2019, Reuters reported, quoting diplomats, that the International Atomic Energy Agency had detected traces of uranium in samples tested from a nuclear warehouse claimed by Israel in Iran.

In November of that year, Abbas Mousavi, then spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denied the discovery of uranium by the International Atomic Energy Agency in samples taken from the Turquzabad warehouse and called it “a trap set by the Zionist regime.”

Now, however, the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that enriched uranium has been found at four locations in Iran, and ambiguity has only been cleared regarding one of these locations.

Natanz Underground Facilities

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an interview with the Associated Press, confirmed that Iran has increased enrichment capacity using advanced centrifuges and relocated some facilities to locations where it believes they have greater security.

Apparently, Rafael Grossi’s reference is to the relocation of advanced centrifuge production facilities to an underground center in Natanz, which Reuters reported based on a confidential Agency report.

According to this report, these facilities were launched in late April, and Agency surveillance cameras were installed there as well. Iran, some time after beginning to reduce its compliance with JCPOA commitments, blocked inspectors’ access to surveillance camera footage and made their provision conditional upon an agreement on reviving the JCPOA.

Israel and its supporters describe the actual goal of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programs as obtaining an atomic bomb and believe it must be prevented by any means.

The Islamic Republic has consistently claimed that the goal of its nuclear program is the peaceful use of nuclear energy. However, Western intelligence sources and the International Atomic Energy Agency believe that Iran’s nuclear programs had a military dimension at least until 2003.

Source: DW