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Top Security Official Asks World Powers to Close Iran’s PMD Case

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Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani called on the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) to fulfill their pledge under the nuclear agreement and close the case with Iran’s past nuclear activities – known as the PMD issues.

“What closes the PMD case is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors’ resolution and the G5+1 is a part of the Board of Governors and we hope that they act upon their responsibility and close the case,” Shamkhani told reporters in Tehran on Sunday.

He underlined that closure of the PMD case is a prelude to the full implementation of the July 14 nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In relevant remarks on Saturday, Iranian Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Reza Najafi underlined that the G5+1 have promised to present a resolution to the Board of Governors to close the PMD case (based on the July 14 nuclear deal with Tehran), “Therefore, after the director-general’s report we should wait until December 15. We expect the G5+1 to act upon their undertakings otherwise it means that they don’t have the necessary determination to implement the JCPOA and therefore, Iran won’t be duty-bound to fulfill its undertakings either,” he added.

Also on Friday, Najafi underlined that the PMD case should be closed before the nuclear deal can come into force.

“We are waiting for the IAEA to fulfill its commitment with regard to the closure of the PMD issues, because the JCPOA will not be implemented if the UN watchdog does not do this,” Najafi said, addressing the IAEA’s Board of Governors in Vienna.

He also said Iran was taking the needed measures to implement the JCPOA “by late December or early January” if the upcoming IAEA report ends up in the closure of the PMD issues.

Last week, Najafi underlined that Tehran had emphasized that implementation of the JCPOA would take place only after the case of the PMD issues is closed.

“They know that the condition for implementation of JCPOA is the closing of the PMD issue,” Najafi said in reaction to the recent remarks by the US officials who said that the PMD case would remain open.

He underlined that Article 14 of the nuclear accord stipulates that the Group 5+1 has to present a resolution to IAEA Board of Governors on December 15 to close the PMD issue.

Earlier this month, Najafi announced that the IAEA would release a report on PMD issues later in November.

“We have taken all measures completely based on the roadmap of cooperation (signed) between Iran and the IAEA and the Agency issued a statement on October 15 and announced that Iran has adopted all measures,” Najafi told reporters in Tehran.

Noting that the IAEA is now busy with compiling the PMD report, he said, “Of course, we will have a conclusion meeting before releasing the report.”

“It is predicted that the IAEA report will be released late November,” Najafi underscored.

“This stage is important and we predict that the Agency’s report will be released and the (PMD) case will be closed late this month,” he added.

The IAEA declared on October 15 that Tehran had completed all steps that it needed to take under the roadmap of cooperation that the two sides signed in Vienna in July to resolve Tehran’s past and present outstanding issues.

“In the period to 15 October 2015, activities set out in the ‘Road-map for the clarification of past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program’ were completed,” a statement by the IAEA said.

“By 15 December 2015, the Director General will provide, for action by the Board of Governors, the final assessment on the resolution of all past and present outstanding issues, as set out in the annex of the 2011 Director General’s report,” it added.

IAEA Chief Yukiya Amano and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi signed a roadmap of cooperation in Vienna on July 14.

After the roadmap was signed, Salehi announced that the new agreement would fully settle all unresolved issues pertaining to Tehran’s nuclear activities in the past.

“All past issues will be resolved completely after Iran and the Agency adopt some measures,” Salehi told reporters after signing an agreement called the Iran-IAEA Cooperation ‘Roadmap’.

“I hope that a new chapter in the relations and cooperation between Iran and the IAEA will start after the settlement of the past issues,” Salehi added.

Salehi made the remarks in Vienna just a short time after diplomats acknowledged a sum-up agreement had been made between world powers and Iran.

On September 20, Amano was granted access to Parchin as efforts are stepped up to resolve by year end “ambiguities” about Iran’s past nuclear activities.

“Amano paid a formal visit to Parchin, and visited some workshops about which there has been some false information,” Spokesman of the AEOI Behrouz Kamalvandi said at the time.

The Vienna-based IAEA also confirmed the site visit.

Iran has repeatedly urged that it wants an IAEA report to announce final results of its investigations about the PMD issue, reiterating that it does not want the PMD issue to remain open after a deal with the world powers.

The PMD has become a persistent bone of contention in the talks between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog. During the last year Iran has removed 16 of the 18 questions and ambiguities that the IAEA has presented with regard to Tehran’s nuclear activities, and the country has recently provided the needed answers and documents for the 17 point.

Iran has sped up its cooperation with the IAEA in the last two years to bring the PMD issue to a closure as fast as possible, but the nuclear watchdog has avoided report the removal of each of the ambiguities and questions that have been answered by Iran, in violation of the agency’s initial agreement with Tehran. The two sides had initially agreed that they would cooperate to remove any uncertainty about Iran’s past nuclear activities item by item and would deal with the next item in their 18-point list only after the IAEA reports that it has been convinced by Iran’s answers about the last item in the list and declare that the relevant ambiguity has been removed.

Yet, the PMD allegations against the country have remained a persistent point of difference between the two sides. The accusations are based on alleged information derived from a laptop computer that Iran’s armed opposition, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, PMOI and NCRI), claims to have stolen from Iranian nuclear scientists and later presented to the US spying agencies.

Renowned American investigative journalist Gareth Porter has in the last two years explained how the laptop documents were forged by Israel’s Mossad spy agency in different articles and TV interviews, specially in his latest masterpiece ‘Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare’.

In mid June, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister and senior negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi said alleged documents and accusations about Iran’s past nuclear activities are untrue and Iran wants to see this proved and declared to the world.

“Iran wants to be exonerated from the PMD case and it should be become clear that the PMD cases have been false and during the negotiations, we pressure the opposite side and insist that the fate of this case should come under light within the framework of the agreement,” Araqchi said in an interview with the state TV on June 17 before leaving Tehran for Vienna to participate in nuclear talks with his counterparts from the Group 5+1.

He stressed that the PMD allegations have been fabricated and fed into the world public opinion, specially in the West. “It should be made clear that all of them are lies and false claims.”

Araqchi said both Iran and the world powers are seeking to find ways to enable the IAEA to verify Iran’s previous nuclear activities, and “we are still having consultation in this regard”.

Araqchi’s remarks came after US Secretary of State John Kerry said a day earlier on June 16 that a full accounting of Iran’s PMD issue is not necessarily critical to reaching a nuclear deal with Tehran.

Kerry said the US and its negotiating partners are “not fixated” on the issue of so-called “possible military dimensions” because they already have a complete picture of Iran’s past activities. He said they are more concerned that those activities have stopped and about what Iran might do in the future.

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