Watchdog: Iran Nuclear Deal Prevents Public Reporting of Violations

Yukiya Amano, head of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) admitted on March 7, 2016 that the Iran nuclear deal limits public reporting on potential violations by Tehran.

The IAEA is tasked with ensuring Iranian compliance with the agreement between six countries—Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, the United States—and Iran over the latter’s purported illegal nuclear weapons program.

According to The Washington Free Beacon, an online newspaper, Amano “told reporters that his agency is no longer permitted to release details about Iran’s nuclear program and compliance with the deal (“IAEA: Iran Nuke Deal Limits Public Reporting on Possible Violations,” March 7, 2016).” Amano made his remarks after questions arose about the February IAEA oversight report not being transparent.

The IAEA head stated that the report was purposefully vague because the nuclear agreement prevents the watchdog from publishing critical data about the Iranian program that had been disclosed previously.

National Review Online noted that this is the result of a Dec. 15, 2015 IAEA Board of Governors resolution that directed the agency to “cease reporting on Iran’s compliance with its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty obligations and past Security Council resolutions (“In Yet Another Secret Side Deal, Iran’s Nuclear Violations Won’t Be Publicly Disclosed,” March 9, 2016).” The magazine notes that this also means that the possible military dimensions of the nuclear program no longer will be publicized by the IAEA—despite a December 2 report that “raised several serious unresolved questions about Iran’s nuclear weapons-related activities.”

The February IAEA report did not provide information about Iran’s stockpiles of low-enriched uranium or Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, the machines responsible for enriching uranium.

Free Beacon noted that both these omissions and others led to nuclear experts like former IAEA deputy director general Oli Heinonen raising questions about the report. Heinonen, now an analyst with Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a D.C.-based think tank, said that the report by the watchdog agency “does not list inventories of nuclear materials and equipment or the status of key sites and facilities.”

Despite lacking these details, that report was used as the basis for the agreement to proceed to the next stage: implementation, which among other things included $100 billion in sanctions relief. As CAMERA noted, then-Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey remarked in June 2015 that these unfrozen funds likely will be used by Iran to subsidize terrorists (“Gen. Dempsey: Iran Sanctions Relief Will Fund Terrorism,” July 6, 2015).

Iranian belligerence and failure to comply with international law was on display in other recent Islamic Republic initiatives.

On March 8, Iranian state media stated that the Islamic Republic had conducted a series of precision-guided missile tests. This was the second such test since October 2015 and both instances violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Two of the ballistic missiles had the phrase “Israel must be wiped out” written on them according to Iranian information media. The head of the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ aerospace division, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, told state TV: “The 2,000 kilometer range of our missiles is to confront the Zionist regime. Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war. It will collapse even before being hit by these missiles.” The test took place—perhaps not coincidentally—while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel.

As CAMERA has noted (“Elie Wiesel Challenges President Obama; Washington Post Misses Story,” April 30, 2012) Iran has threatened to destroy Israel—which violates the U.N. Charter Article 2 against aggression and the U.N. anti-genocide convention.

That violation can—unlike some violations of the nuclear agreement—be reported publically.