IAEA Tells Netanyahu, We Already Assessed Iran’s Nuclear Program

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

IAEA Tells Netanyahu, We Already Assessed Iran’s Nuclear Program

May 1, 2018 (EIRNS)—In a statement from its spokesman today, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) curtly responded to Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s vaudeville act with a “half-ton of documents” yesterday, saying that the IAEA Board of Directors had examined all this material closely before, and had come to a final decision in December 2015 to close the investigation into Iran’s nuclear program, based on IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano’s Final Assessment that “the Agency had no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009.”

The IAEA reviewed the final report’s findings. “The Agency assessed that, before the end of 2003, an organizational structure was in place in Iran suitable for the coordination of a range of activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.”

So much for Netanyahu’s “new information.”

The IAEA statement continued:

“Although some activities took place after 2003, they were not part of a coordinated effort. The Agency’s overall assessment was that a range of activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device were conducted in Iran prior to the end of 2003 as a coordinated effort, and some activities took place after 2003. The Agency also assessed that these activities did not advance beyond feasibility and scientific studies, and the acquisition of certain relevant technical competences and capabilities. The same report stated that the Agency had no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009.”

On that basis, the Board of Directors made their decision.

The IAEA will not comment further on the Netanyahu story, the agency made clear.

“In line with standard IAEA practice, the IAEA evaluates all safeguards-relevant information available to it. However, it is not the practice of the IAEA to publicly discuss issues related to any such information.”