Iran hails closure of probe on past nuclear work

Iran’s envoy to the IAEA said afterwards that Tehran would now “accelerate” enacting July’s accord to scale down its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, and fulfil its side of the bargain within “two to three weeks”. But the nuclear deal could not go into full force until the IAEA declared that it had fully investigated the question of old nuclear weapons work.

“I welcome today’s consensus adoption by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors (BOG) of the resolution addressing the Director General’s December 2 final assessment of the possible military dimensions (PMD) of Iran’s past nuclear program”, he said in Moscow.

Chief Iranian delegate Reza Najafi denied such work, in keeping with his country’s constant line during the protracted probe.

“This council cannot allow Iran to feel that it can violate our resolutions with impunity”, Power said, stressing the importance of sanctions enforcement for “a credible, enforceable nuclear deal”.

Mr Amano hailed the “very important milestone”.

“For over a decade, Iran has been non-cooperative and deceptive”, a ministry statement read.

He said: “We can not relax”. “We can not be complacent”. But their overriding interest is moving ahead to implement the July 14 deal.

The measures Iran must put in place include slashing its number of centrifuges, sensitive machines that purify uranium to levels at which it can be used as reactor fuel or, if enriched further, in atom bombs.

Mr Najafi said that process would be completed “within two or three days”.

Just once the Vienna-based United Nations agency’s inspectors have confirmed that all the constraints are in effect will worldwide sanctions battering the Iranian economy be lifted.

Once that happens, the European Union will lift financial and oil and sanctions. Unlike in previous statements, it avoided condemning Iran over its alleged weapons research and development program, saying only “we note” the agency conclusion.

In Congress, many lawmakers balked at the fact that the terms of the IAEA’s investigation of Iran’s sites would not be made public.

Ensher also suggested the agency could again be called upon to investigate Iran, noting that the closure of the probe does not prevent the agency from following up on “any new concerns regarding weaponization”. In other words, even after the vote, Iran continued to proclaim its innocence.

Immediately following the October 10 launch, the U.S., France, Britain and Germany asked the Security Council to take “appropriate action” against Iran, and the 15-nation council is expected to discuss the report Tuesday.

While the launches may have violated U.N. Security Council sanctions, they did not violate the nuclear deal, diplomats noted.

Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear programme was peaceful.

“On the basis of its analysis and findings the Panel concludes that Emad launch is a violation by Iran of paragraph 9 of Security Council resolution 1929”, the panel said.

Whether the Security Council takes any action remains to be seen.

Amano said in November that Iran’s work on “a range of activities relevant” to making nuclear weapons continued until at least 2009.

On February 1, 2013, John Forbes Kerry was sworn in as the 68th Secretary of State of the United States, becoming the first sitting Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman to become Secretary in over a century.

“Nothing has changed”, she declared.