IAEA report indicates lack of cooperation by Iranian regime and clear violation of JCPOA

Agency confirms that regime’s nuclear weapons program has continued at least until 2009

Report indicates the 2003 disclosure by the Resistance was a decisive blow to the regime’s project of acquiring the nuclear bomb

The key report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the “possible military dimensions” to Iran’s nuclear program clearly indicates a lack of cooperation on the part of the regime with the Agency, which is a blatant violation of JCPOA.

The Agency’s 16-page report examined each and every one of the 12 outstanding issues and concluded: “The Agency assesses that, before the end of 2003, an organizational structure was in place in Iran suitable for the coordination of a range of activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device. Although some activities took place after 2003, they were not part of a coordinated effort” and that regime’s activities have continued at least until 2009.

The year 2003 that has been referred to as the turning point in the regime’s attempts to obtain the nuclear bomb in fact refers to the disclosure of Lavizan-Shian site by the Iranian Resistance in May 2003. This site as a “Physics Research Center” was the headquarters and the nerve center for the regime to acquire the nuclear bomb. By the exposure of this site, the regime was forced to dismantle and disintegrate it and now, more than ever, the breadth of this blow to the regime’s systematic attempt to obtain the nuclear bomb is becoming evident.

Despite all the hampering and lack of cooperation by the regime and its breach of its commitments to the agreed roadmap with the IAEA in July 2015, this report has brushed aside the regime’s deceptions, including its falsifications regarding the exploding bridgewire (EBW) or the multipoint initiator (MPI). According to this report, explanations offered by the regime in this regard have at times been contradictory or inconsistent. The report underscores that “EBW detonators developed by Iran have characteristics relevant to a nuclear explosive device” and that “the MPI technology developed by Iran has characteristics relevant to a nuclear explosive device”.

The report rejects explanations by the regime that Parchin has been used “for the storage of chemical material for the production of explosives” and instead accentuates that “Information available to the Agency in relation to hydrodynamic testing indicated that Iran made and installed a large cylinder at the Parchin military complex in 2000. Other information indicated that this cylinder matched the parameters of an explosives firing chamber featured in publications of the foreign expert. The information available to the Agency, including the results of the analysis of the samples and the satellite images, does not support Iran’s statements on the purpose of the building.”

This report brushes aside the regime’s claims to the peaceful nature of its nuclear program and Khamenei’s hollow fatwa that the nuclear weapon is haram (forbidden by Islamic law).

The IAEA’s report about the systematic attempt by the Iranian regime to obtain the nuclear bomb is despite the fact that during the years the regime has incessantly worked to destroy any document or evidence on its clandestine activities to build the nuclear bomb. Had the international stakeholders adopted a firm stance regarding the illegal actions of this regime, surely further dimensions of this program would have been exposed and the IAEA could have disclosed many more cases of the regime’s attempts to obtain the nuclear bomb.

According to credible information obtained by the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) network inside the country that it exposed on December 1, concurrent with the IAEA investigations to prepare the report, the Iranian regime formed a top-secret committee to draft the responses to the demands and queries of IAEA. The key individuals in this committee were top officials from the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Ministry of Defense. In the past years, these individuals have been constantly involved in the regime’s nuclear projects. Given the familiarity of this committee with the military aspects of the nuclear program, the committee was tasked to draft the necessary scenarios about the non-military usage of the program to cover up regime’s objective to obtain the nuclear bomb. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the key individual in the regime’s nuclear weapons program who is a member of this committee, finalizes the responses and hands them down to the safeguards section of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), which is the entity that presents the Iranian regime’s official responses to the Agency’s inspectors to be passed along to the IAEA.

The latest IAEA report clearly shows that the religious fascism ruling Iran has no intention whatsoever of abandoning its nuclear weapons project; otherwise, it could have closed the file several years ago by presenting all relevant documents and evidence. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former President of this regime and the head of the State Expediency Council, who has always been the number-two man in this regime, in an interview published by the regime’s official news agency IRNA on October 26, 2015 explicitly acknowledged that from the outset the regime’s objective in the nuclear program was to acquire the bomb and it has never abandoned this goal.

Given the present attitude of the Iranian regime, any true verification and assurance that the regime has ceased activities to acquire the nuclear bomb, which is the focus of the deal between the P5+1 and the regime, is sheer delusion. In such circumstance, lifting of the sanctions and giving the Iranian regime a free hand will only offer it with further means to continue with its nuclear program.