Is Iran really "stonewalling" the IAEA?

You will see many reports claiming that Iran has been "stonewalling the IAEA." (for my many readers in Iran: stonewalling means refusing to answer.)

In Aug 2007, Iran and the IAEA agreed to resolve a list of issues. As part of this agreement, called the Modalities Agreement, Iran agreed to address the "alleged studies" upon "receiving all related documents."

By Feb 2008, the IAEA said that all outstanding issues had been resolved -- except for the "alleged studies" and the had US refused to give the full documentation to Iran OR the IAEA. Nevertheless Iran had provided answers to some of the allegations, even though they exceeded the authority of the IAEA to investigate. The IAEA only has the authority to investigate nuclear issues -- and the IAEA itself has said that it has "no credible evidence" that the alleged studies by Iran involved any nuclear material:

"it should be emphasized … that the Agency has not detected the actual use of nuclear material in connection with the alleged studies" (IAEA Gov/2008/15 at paragraph 28).

"[I]t should be noted that the Agency has not detected the actual use of nuclear material in connection with the alleged studies, nor does it have credible information in this regard" (IAEA Gov/2008/4 at paragraph 54 )

Regarind claims that Iran has "refused to answer" IAEA questions, Peter Casey has written:

[Saying] that "Iran refuses to answer" IAEA questions is grossly misleading. As documented in every single IAEA board report since the laptop allegations first surfaced, Iran has consistently and adamantly answered many of the allegations by describing them as baseless and fabricated. In addition, it was only in February 2008 that the U.S. gave the IAEA permission to show any of the documents to Iran to enable it to respond (IAEA Gov/2008/4 at paragraph 37). The U.S. further manipulated the IAEA's efforts by providing "much of this information [to the IAEA] only in electronic form" and "not authorizing the [IAEA] to provide copies to Iran" (IAEA Gov/2008/15 at paragraph 16). The U.S. even refused to give the IAEA itself copies of some material. For example, the U.S. did not let the IAEA have copies of key documents concerning the "ballistic missile warhead" for a "nuclear weapon" ... The agency was "therefore unfortunately unable to make them available to Iran."

Thus far, Iran has NOT received the documents it is supposed to refute, despite the fact that the USA has been selectively leaking it to the press and holding media PR events usign the material, because the US refuses to allow anyone to independently check the validity of the documents nor the "Laptop of Death" from which they were obtained.

So, who is "stonewalling" whom here?

In short, Iran is being required to refute allegations in documents it has not been allowed to see. Meet my friend, Nukie the Nuclear Spaghetti Monster.

Comments

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[Pirouz]

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[mb]

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