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Agreement reached between Iran and IAEA on inspection of nuclear sites

Iran-IAEA Agreement Opens Door For Nuclear Inspectors To Visit Key Sites As Geneva Talks Collapse http://www.businessinsider.com.au/iran-iaea-agreement-opens-door-for-nuclear-inspectors-to-visit-key-sites-2013-11  MICHAEL KELLEY 11 NOV 13 THE UNITED NATIONS ATOMIC AGENCY AND IRAN ON MONDAY SIGNED A JOINT STATEMENT ON FUTURE COOPERATION REGARDING NUCLEAR ISSUES,

Reuters reports.  The agreement allows International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to visit two sites at the center of Iran’s contentious nuclear program: The Arak heavy water site and Gachin uranium mine.

Arak is currently under construction and is designed to eventually produce weapons-grade plutonium.Gachin has been producing plutonium, which can be enriched to weapons grade, since 2010. The other sticking point in nuclear talks that ended without a deal over the weekend in Geneva is the fate of Iran’s stockpile of uranium already enriched to 20 per cent, which could be further enriched to weapons grade.

The new agreement — which is separate from the talks involving Iran and so-called the P5+1: the US, Russia, Britain, France, China, and — calls for measures requested by the agency to be implemented at the facilities.

“The practical measures will be implemented in the next three months, starting from today,” IAEA head Yukiya Amano said in a news conference in Tehran.  Reuters notes that the agreement is one part of an IAEA inspection regime to ascertain whether Iran’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

November 12, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international