Iran nuke deal blocked after key inspections refused

[Nipuna]

The Parchin military site in Iran (Image: DigitalGlobe via Getty)

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The world will have to wait a few more months to see if talking can clarify Iran's nuclear plans. A deadline of 24 November had been set for Iran and the West to agree control measures allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify that the country's nuclear activities are peaceful. In return, sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy would be lifted.

But on Monday, negotiators said they would need another seven months, without spelling out why. However, an IAEA report earlier this month suggests a reason, saying that "the Agency [cannot] provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear materials and activities".

A year ago, Iran promised to cut back some nuclear activities and start talks. On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Iran had, as agreed, given up all of its 20-per-cent-enriched uranium hexafluoride, a form close to weapons-grade. He added that the country had stopped making more of the substance, frozen work on a heavy-water reactor that can make bomb-grade plutonium, and let IAEA inspectors track more of its uranium production process.

But the IAEA complains that Iran has not provided all the access it promised, especially to a military installation at Parchin, the site of alleged high-explosives experiments and neutron-transport research aimed at bomb design. Early this month, the sides planned to resume discussing this subject after 24 November – suggesting they knew then talks would not be over.