IAEA points to Iran’s secret nuclear facilities

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog, has apparently given a confidential report to the 35 members of the board. It is about Iran not disclosing about its secret experiments in three places.

The report is rather vague about when Iran had conducted these experiments and the IAEA inspectors were kept in the dark. It could be as far back as 2000. The IAEA had expressed its dissatisfaction with Iran on several occasions earlier.

The report says, “The Agency concludes that Iran did not declare nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three undeclared locations in Iran, specifically, Lavisan-Shian, Varamin, and Turquzabad.”

West Germany, France and Britain are to use this information to rap Iran, and also increase pressure on the United States to come to the negotiating table, and work out a fresh nuclear deal.

US President Donald Trump had pulled out of the deal during his first presidential term. But now he is keen that the deal should be worked out. It appears that Trump believes that the nuclear deal with Iran is a means of satisfying Israel, which in turn will help forging peace in Gaza. It is not clear how right and relevant the assumption is. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might continue his offensive against Gaza despite the US, Germany, France and Britain signing a nuclear deal with Iran, and ensure that Iran will not have the nuclear weapons which would pose a security threat to Israel.

The U-turn on the part of President Trump in his keenness to clinch the nuclear deal with Iran is surprising. Trump, of course, approaches Iran with the offer of a deal in his inimitable style. He tries to browbeat, threaten, arm-twist Iran to join talks for the deal. Iran has predictably adopted a defiant stance.

However, the two sides, behind their hardline stances, seem to be only too willing to talk to each other and get the deal done. Iran feels the pinch of the economic sanctions, and it does want to free itself so that it can sell oil in the global markets and also strengthen its economy. For Trump, it is a question of providing safety for Israel. It is for the same reason that he shook hands with Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Iran has said time and again that its nuclear programme is meant for peaceful uses, for generating electricity. But it has not been able to keep the programme transparent so that no one can point an accusing finger at it. It is its reluctance to fully disclose the details of its nuclear programme that raises doubts in the minds of other countries who are not necessarily hostile to it.

Tehran’s policymakers perhaps will have to decide that the nuclear programme will be open because it is meant for civil purposes. The other reason there is pressure on Iran is the fact that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968. It was signed by the then government of Shah Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. So, Iran is treaty-bound not to manufacture nuclear weapons.

What raises the suspicion is the uranium enrichment process that it carries out. If the uranium enrichment is over 60 per cent, it is 90 per cent weapons grade stuff. It is this borderline uranium enrichment process that is causing all the trouble. Iran might have to soften its stance and work its way out of the tight spot it finds itself in. Then it will gain support of the neighbouring Arab countries as well.