IAEA Inspectors Visit 'Torqozabad Warehouse' Near Tehran

Six months after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran has a 'secret radioactive material warehouse' in Torqozabad, Tehran, Reuters reported on Thursday, April 15, that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have visited this location. According to the report, IAEA inspectors have visited the mentioned site in Torqozabad more than once, with the consent of the Iranian government. Reuters published this report citing statements from three diplomats at the agency's headquarters, but did not name them. The news agency did not mention the results of the inspectors' report, but an Iranian official told Reuters, 'We had nothing to hide,' and allowing free access to this site was 'based on regulations' and Iran's cooperation with the agency. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has not responded to Reuters' report. Netanyahu had reported the existence of 'a secret nuclear warehouse in Maher Alley, Tehran.' Official agency officials have also remained silent regarding Reuters' report, but according to the news agency, the agency's official report on the inspectors' visit to Torqozabad will be published in June. Based on assessments, Iran's agreement to inspections of the mentioned site may indicate Tehran's continued adherence to its commitments under the JCPOA. Since the beginning of Iran and world powers' access to the JCPOA in July 2015, the agency has continuously confirmed that Iran has adhered to its commitments under this agreement. After the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA on May 8 last year, the agency has also confirmed Iran's continued commitment to the provisions of the JCPOA in its quarterly reports. However, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently told Yukiya Amano, the agency's director-general, that verification regarding Iran should be conducted with more pressure. In his speech at the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 26 last year, while showing a Google map and a photo of the entrance to a building in Torqozabad, Netanyahu asked the IAEA why, despite Israel providing information about this 'Iranian secret nuclear warehouse' months earlier, the agency's inspectors had not gone to Iran. Amano responded that the agency's inspectors had gone to every location in Iran that they needed to visit. However, Netanyahu openly entered into a verbal dispute with the agency's director-general, rejecting his statements. 'Where is Torqozabad?' Netanyahu later said that Iran was afraid to provide information about its 'secret warehouse' and had dispersed the nuclear materials stored in Torqozabad throughout Tehran. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at that time said that anyone making such claims is a regime that itself 'has a real nuclear weapons arsenal.' Abbas Araqchi, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, also reacted to Netanyahu's remarks, laughing while mentioning Torqozabad, saying that someone had played a trick on Netanyahu. Although the U.S. State Department supported Netanyahu's statements last fall and called on the agency to investigate the Israeli Prime Minister's claims, a senior U.S. intelligence official at that time said that Washington had long been aware of this location, which was full of folders and papers, not nuclear materials. Iranian media claimed that Maher Alley in Torqozabad, which Netanyahu showed a photo of its entrance, is 'the carpet cleaning business of the Rezai brothers and partners.' Torqozabad, located on the Tehran-Qom road, became a familiar name for Iranians and the world after its mention by Netanyahu from the UN General Assembly podium, and many jokes were made about it on social media.