MEMRI November 27, 2015 Special Dispatch No.6229
Statements By Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi Indicate:
IAEA's PMD Report Is Being Written In Negotiation With Iran, Not
Independently
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8876.htm

In a November 25, 2015 interview on Iranian television, Iran's deputy
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that he recently held talks with IAEA
director-general Yukiya Amano on "closing the Possible Military Dimension
(PMD) dossier", and the latter filled him in about "some of the points he is
to present" in the upcoming IAEA report on this issue. Araghchi noted that
he had also spoken with the Americans and Europeans in Vienna, and had
understood from them that "they too were heading towards closing the PMD
dossier." [1]

It should be recalled that Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic
Energy Organization and a member of the nuclear negotiation team, said in a
June 21, 2015 interview on Iranian television that Iran had "reached
understandings with the IAEA" on the PMD issue, and added: "Now there is
political backing [of the P5+1], and the [PMD] issue should be resolved." He
stated further: “By December 15, [2015], at the end of the year, the issue
[of the PMD] should be determined. The IAEA will submit its report to [its]
board of governors. It will only submit it. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action will continue independently of the results of this report. We have
reached understandings with the IAEA… The technical issues are now being
resolved in a political framework. They have set a time frame and, God
willing, the issue must be resolved by December 15." In response to the
interviewers' remark that the IAEA has "a bad record" (in terms of
cooperating with Iran), Salehi stated: "In short, they [the IAEA] will be
the losers. As I have said, the issue has received political backing. The
work of [the IAEA] must be reasonable. They cannot do anything unreasonable.
When there is no political backing, they do whatever they want, but now
there is political backing, and the issue should be resolved.”[2]

In his November 25 interview, Araghchi said: "In the next few days our
experts will be in contact with the IAEA experts, and if necessary they will
bring up additional points. I may also meet with Amano again... They [our
experts] told us there were some weak points in the IAEA report and I
commented on them. I am optimistic that they will be corrected..."

He added: "I don't think there is any plan behind the scenes to leave the
PMD dossier open. We have not received any indications that there is a plan
[of this kind] behind the scenes. In any case I provided the Americans and
Europeans with the necessary comments."

He stated further: "On December 1, 2015, we expect this report to be
published and submitted to the Security Council. A special Security Council
meeting has been scheduled for December 15, 2015, in which a resolution on
the IAEA report will be taken. During this time [until December 15], the
P5+1 group will submit a [draft] resolution [to the Security Council] with
the objective of closing the PMD dossier, and [this draft resolution] will
come up for a vote in its December 15, 2015 meeting. Also, on December 7,
2015, there will be a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission in Vienna,
attended by [representatives of] Iran and the P5+1, in which we will discuss
the P5+1 [draft] resolution on closing the PMD. We have taken all the
necessary steps so that on December 15, 2015, [the Security Council] will
resolve to close the PMD dossier and this issue will be put to rest."

According to Araghchi, "if the Security Council does not close the PMD
dossier, the process of implementing the JCPOA will stop. Hence, the P5+1
must decide between the PMD and the JCPOA... In the past, the P5+1 chose the
JCPOA. The [Supreme] Leader [Khamenei]'s letter on Iran's implementation of
the nuclear steps [a document published by Khamenei in October 21 detailing
9 additional conditions for Iranian compliance with the JCPOA][3] likewise
emphasizes that they must choose between the JCPOA and the PMD."[4]

According to Iran's Press TV news agency, Araghchi said in the same
interview: "If Yukiya Amano or the [IAEA's] board of governors will present
their report in such a way that it does not meet the stipulated commitments,
the Islamic Republic of Iran will also stop [the implementation of] the
JCPOA.”[5] In this statement, Araghchi implies that Iran has received
commitments that the PMD dossier will be closed.

Araghchi's interview indicates that Iran has been following the writing of
the IAEA report and has been submitting comments to the IAEA and the P5+1,
and has in fact been exerting constant pressure on Amano and on the P5+1 in
order to ensure that the PMD dossier be closed and the report be worded
unequivocally and to Iran's complete satisfaction.

It should also be recalled that the inspection of the Parchin military
facility, carried out to determine whether Iran's program had military
dimensions, consisted of Iran submitting samples that were not collected in
the presence of IAEA inspectors and were later submitted to the IAEA, so
that their origin cannot be absolutely determined.

As for the steps currently being taken by Iran to comply with the JCPOA,
Araghchi clarified that "none of the steps so far taken by Iran in this
matter contravenes the [Supreme] Leader's letter... and, as far as I know,
[we] are still in the stage of dismantling the inactive centrifuges." (Both
Iranian Atomic Agency Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi and Iranian National
Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani have indeed said that Iran has
transferred inactive centrifuges from one facility to another, but no active
centrifuges have been dismantled).[6]

Endnotes:
[1] ISNA (Iran), November 25, 2015.
[2] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 5014, We Have Reached Understandings with the
IAEA about the PMD; Technical Issues Are Now Being Resolved on a Political
Level, July 21, 2015.
[3] See MEMRI Daily Brief No.65, MEMRI: 'The Emperor Has No Clothes,'
October 30, 2015.
[4] ISNA (Iran), November 25, 2015.
[5] Press TV (Iran), November 26, 2015.
[6] Kamalvandi: ISNA (Iran), November 3, 2015; Shamkhani: Fars (Iran),
November 10, 2015.

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