Iran has met a deadline to give the UN nuclear watchdog what it needs to assess whether Tehran’s past activities had anything to do with nuclear weapons, the agency said yesterday, a step towards implementing a deal between Tehran and world powers.
The deal struck in July calls for the lifting of sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities.
Under a road map agreement reached along with that deal, Iran had to provide by yesterday the cooperation necessary for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to complete an assessment of Iran’s activities by Dec. 15.
“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 programme’ were completed,” the IAEA said in a statement.
It added that the agency would provide its assessment by Dec. 15, as expected. A spokesman for the IAEA declined to elaborate on yesterday’s statement.
IAEA had sent Iran questions on certain ambiguities in its submission to the agency
The IAEA said last month it had sent Iran questions on “ambiguities” in its submissions to the agency. Cooperation with a view to resolving those questions is a central part of what Iran had to supply by yesterday.
The investigation is now due to move into a phase in which the agency assesses the materials provided by Iran, including environmental samples at the Parchin military site, which IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano visited last month. One of the questions investigated by the IAEA is whether Iran carried out high-explosives testing at Parchin that could be used to make a nuclear warhead. Last month’s visit was the IAEA’s first access to Parchin in a decade.
Meanwhile a senior Chinese admiral visiting Iran yesterday was quoted as saying that China wants to deepen military ties with Iran after a meeting with the defence minister in Tehran.
Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, told Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan that China paid great attention to developing relations with Iran, China’s Defence Ministry said.
“The aim of this delegation’s visit is to further promote friendship, deepen cooperation and exchange views with Iran on bilateral military ties and issues of mutual concern,” Sun said, according to the statement. The trip will also “promote the preservation of international and regional peace and stability”, he added.
China and Iran have close diplomatic, economic, trade and energy ties, and China has been active in pushing both the United States and Iran to reach agreement on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.
Under a multilateral deal, agreed in July, sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations will be lifted in return for Iran agreeing to long-term curbs on a nuclear programme that the West has suspected was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb. Mr Sun said that China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, was pleased that an agreement had been reached. Last year, for the first time ever, two Chinese warships docked at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port to take part in a joint naval exercises in the Gulf and an Iranian admiral was given tours of a Chinese submarine and warships.
Iran and Russia have both provided support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war. China, however, remains a low key diplomatic player in the Middle East despite its dependence on the region’s oil.
Beijing has repeatedly warned that military action cannot end the crisis in Syria and has called multiple times for talks and a political solution.