Iran implements nuclear commitments: Energy watchdog

By Ayse Humeyra Atilgan

ISTANBUL (AA) - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday that Iran was "subject to the world’s most robust nuclear verification regime."

According to a written statement by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano: "Iran is now provisionally implementing the Additional Protocol to its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA, a powerful verification tool which gives our inspectors broader access to information and locations in Iran."

"So far, the IAEA has had access to all locations it needed to visit."

Amano said since Jan. 2016, the agency has been verifying and monitoring Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as requested by the United Nations Security Council and authorized by the IAEA’s Board of Governors.

He said the nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the JCPOA were being implemented.

The statement came after U.S. President Donald Trump's annoucement of his new strategy for the Iran nuclear deal which they summarily dismissed.

On Friday, Trump addressed what he termed Iran's "dangerous aggression", issuing new penalties against Iran's Revolutionary Guards and saying he will not certify the landmark Iran nuclear deal.

Presidents are required under U.S. law to certify the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), every 90 days. Trump had until Sunday to make the certification, but said "we cannot and will not" take the action.

“What is the purpose of a deal that, at best, only delays Iran’s nuclear capability for a short period of time?” Trump asked rhetorically during an address at the White House.

Trump claimed Iran has run afoul of the agreement on multiple occasions, pointing to alleged violations of limits of nuclear materials, as well as what he called Iran's intimidation of "international inspectors into not using full inspection authorities that the agreement calls for.

"Iranian officials and military leaders have repeatedly claimed they will not allow inspectors on to military sites even though the international community suspects some of those sites were part of Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program,” he said.

In exchange for lifting sanctions on Iran, the JCPOA provided international inspectors broad access to Iran's nuclear program as Iran sharply curtailed the program.

Military sites were not explicitly included in the deal, and international inspectors have continually verified Iran's compliance since the JCPOA went into effect in January 2016.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed Trump's speech and said the U.S. could not unilaterally terminate the agreement. Speaking to state television, Rouhani described the U.S. president’s address as “nothing more than insults and accusations”.

With Trump's decertification, Congress will now have to decide how to proceed on the historic nuclear deal.