{"id":6288,"date":"2016-11-17T23:56:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T04:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=6288"},"modified":"2016-11-17T23:56:14","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T04:56:14","slug":"u-n-agency-warns-iran-on-nuclear-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/6288\/","title":{"rendered":"U.N. Agency Warns Iran on Nuclear Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
Notice follows disclosure that Iran had stockpiled more than the permitted amount of heavy water<\/span><\/h5>\n
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An interior view of the Arak heavy-water production facility in central Iran on Oct. 27, 2004. Photo: Reuters<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

News Sourec: wsj.com<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

The head of the United Nations agency that oversees the Iranian nuclear deal warned Tehran on Thursday to stick to the accord after it was found for the second time to have breached one of its terms.<\/p>\n

The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week that Iran had stockpiled slightly more than the allowable 130 metric tons of heavy water. Spent fuel can be taken from the heavy water to produce plutonium for a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

Details emerged the day after Donald Trump\u2019s election as U.S. president<\/a>. During the campaign, Mr. Trump talked about tearing up the July 2015 deal between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers. Since election day, he hasn\u2019t commented publicly on the agreement.<\/p>\n

Yukiya Amano, head of the IAEA, told the agency\u2019s board that it was the second time Iran\u2019s inventory had exceeded 130 metric tons. He confirmed that Iran had pledged to transfer excess heavy water out of the country under the agency\u2019s supervision.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Donald Trump as president could attempt to dismantle the Iran nuclear deal, a centerpiece of President Obama’s foreign policy. But any move to scrap it poses major risks, experts say. Photo: AP<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt is important that such situations should be avoided in future in order to maintain international confidence in the implementation of the JCPOA, which represents a clear gain for nuclear verification in Iran,\u201d Mr. Amano said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear accord\u2019s formal name.<\/p>\n

Mr. Amano said Iran \u201cis preparing to transfer a quantity of heavy water to other countries\u201d and the agency is monitoring this.<\/p>\n

The IAEA said in last week\u2019s report Iran had indicated it would reduce its heavy water stockpile soon to 125 metric tons.<\/p>\n

After Mr. Amano\u2019s comments Thursday, Iran\u2019s permanent representative to the agency, Reza Najafi, said Iran has been in contact with \u201cpotential buyers\u201d of the material and that it may reduce the stockpile to below 125 metric tons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran is making some preparations. It needs some work to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Najafi argued that the 130-metric-ton target was not a hard limit in the agreement.<\/p>\n

Mr. Amano said his decision to air his concerns was not a result of Mr. Trump\u2019s election last week.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cThe reason why I expressed this concern is the fact that the inventory of heavy water surpassed 130 [metric] tons for the second time,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran is meeting its other commitments under the nuclear deal, the IAEA has repeatedly said. Those include a commitment not to separate plutonium or reprocess spent fuel for 15 years. Iran has also pledged to redesign and rebuild its Arak nuclear reactor so it doesn’t produce weapons-grade plutonium.<\/p>\n

When the second violation surfaced, U.S. officials played it down, stressing Tehran had made no effort to hide the material from the agency and had pledged to correct the situation.<\/p>\n

However, on Thursday at the agency\u2019s Board meeting, U.S. ambassador to the IAEA Laura Holgate said \u201cIran must strictly adhere to all commitments\u201d and urged Tehran to take steps to ensure its stockpile of heavy water was \u201cwell beneath\u201d 130 metric tons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge Iran to complete without delay its plan to resolve this issue,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, Iran is permitted to continue producing heavy water at Arak as long as any amount in excess of 130 metric tons is transferred out of the country. Officials familiar with the deal say Iran has struggled to find buyers on the international market.<\/p>\n

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, estimates Iran is producing heavy water at a rate of around 25 metric tons a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThus, under current arrangements, Iran is likely to continue pushing up against this cap,\u201d he said in a report published Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Obama administration bought heavy water from Iran for nearly $10 million to help it meet the 130-metric-ton limit.<\/p>\n

Iran claims the U.S. hasn\u2019t upheld the spirit of the deal. It has failed, Tehran says, to do more to encourage European and other international banks to resume business with Iranian firms following the suspension of most economic and financial sanctions in January. Many U.S. sanctions remain in place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notice follows disclosure that Iran had stockpiled more than the permitted amount of heavy water News Sourec: wsj.com The head of the United Nations agency […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-nuclear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6290,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288\/revisions\/6290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}