IAEA asks member states for more money for Iran nuke work

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told reporters the agency received a “substantive volume” of information from Iran on August 15.

The IAEA and US State Department have rejected the claims made in the AP big story.

So far, the costs have been met through extra-budgetary contributions from member states, but that money will be exhausted by the end of September.

Amano said he would discuss to include expenditure on monitoring and verifying the Iran deal in the regular budget, which reached around 350 million euros a year ago , from 2017 onwards.

News broke about Amano’s funding request on Monday, ahead of his Tuesday pitch to the board of governors.

The worldwide Atomic Energy Agency, tasked with monitoring Iranian compliance with last month’s nuclear deal, says the work will cost about 9.2 million euros ($11 million) each year, with the final tab amounting to 138 million euros ($159 million) over the life of the pact, according to a confidential document obtained by The Associated Press. But what if the devil really is in the details when it comes to Iran and its nuclear program?

Critics have recently pounced on the existence of so-called “secret side deals” to the core agreement, which outline how the IAEA will inspect some sites for past nuclear bomb work, such as Iran’s Parchin military facility.

The IAEA also wants to investigate allegations that at least until 2003 Iran conducted research into developing nuclear weapons.

Other countries, including Canada also pressed Iran not to stonewall the IAEA past work probe at Tuesday’s meeting, said one official who attended the meeting. “These include enhanced access for Agency inspectors to uranium mines and mills, and continuous surveillance of centrifuge manufacturing and storage locations”.

Both the White House and the IAEA have sought to reassure the public on this issue, explaining that such side deals between IAEA and the nations it oversees are common. Officials have said Washington is ready to help the agency meet additional needs to implement the Iran agreement.