IAEA Lauds Iran For Nuclear Deal Compliance

Vienna: Iran remains in compliance with all the provisions of the nuclear agreement Tehran signed with six major powers in 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said in a report. Iran has kept its inventories of enriched uranium within the agreed limits of purity and quantity, which are intended to ensure that Tehran cannot develop nuclear weapons in the short term, Efe news reported on Monday citing the IAEA statement.

Additionally, Iranian reserves of heavy water, from which the radioactive element plutonium can be extracted, remain under the maximum limit, according to IAEA inspectors. A month ago, President Donald Trump threatened to pull the US out of the nuclear agreement with Iran if certain "defects" were not corrected.

The IAEA affirmed in the report that its inspectors continue to enjoy access to all required facilities and that the electronic surveillance measures at Iranian nuclear centers provided for in the agreement are in place. The nuclear agreement, which came into force in January 2016, limits various atomic activities by the Islamic Republic for periods ranging from 10 to 25 years.

In return, the signatory powers -- the US, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany -- agreed to lift trade, diplomatic and nuclear sanctions imposed on Iran. Given the pressure exerted by Trump against what he calls "a bad deal," IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano travelled to the US last week to meet with Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.

Amano insisted that IAEA inspectors have everything they need to monitor Iran's compliance with the agreement, describing the pact as the "strongest nuclear verification regime" in the world. The IAEA director-general was in Tehra.

IANS