Draft Resolution of 1+5 Countries for Submission to the IAEA Board of Governors Released

The draft resolution proposed by the 1+5 countries for submission to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program (PMD) has been published. Fars and Mehr news agencies released the Persian text of this draft on Tuesday, December 8, which emphasizes that 'all activities in the roadmap to clarify outstanding past and present issues related to Iran's nuclear program have been carried out according to the agreed timeline.' This clause states that the approval of this resolution will 'conclude' the consideration of the PMD issue by the IAEA Board of Governors. The draft resolution takes into account the recent report by Yukiya Amano, the Director General of the IAEA. In its final report on PMD, the IAEA officially stated that the Islamic Republic had sought to develop a nuclear explosive device at least until the end of 2003, although these activities did not go beyond feasibility studies and scientific research. According to the IAEA report, some of these activities continued until 2009, but no credible evidence of activities related to the development of nuclear weapons in Iran has been found since then. Nevertheless, the draft submitted by the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Germany emphasizes that the Board will 'decide to keep this issue on its agenda for 10 years after the acceptance of the JCPOA, or until a date when the Director General reports that the Agency has reached broader conclusions regarding Iran.' Iranian officials have emphasized that the closure of the PMD file in the Board of Governors is a condition for Iran's implementation of the comprehensive nuclear agreement or JCPOA. John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, also stated that 'there was no doubt about Iran's military efforts in past nuclear activities,' but 'preventing the Iranian government from producing nuclear weapons in the future is much more important than the ambiguous military dimensions of past nuclear activities.' In this context, the agreement between Iran and the 1+5 regarding the proposed resolution to the IAEA Board anticipates the 'approval' of closing Iran's military file in the IAEA Board.