In Search of the Reasons for the Failure to Reach a Final Nuclear Agreement

The international weekly New Scientist has recently explored the reasons behind Iran and the 1+5 group’s failure to reach a final agreement by the deadline of December 3rd. On December 3rd, Iran and the world powers announced that they had extended their negotiations for about seven more months, but they did not provide detailed information regarding the reasons for their lack of agreement. New Scientist, in an article published on December 4th (November 25), states that the reasons for this failure should be sought in the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that was published earlier this month. According to this weekly, particular attention should be paid to the part of the report that states: 'The Agency cannot say with complete confidence that Iran does not have any undisclosed nuclear activities and materials.' The Agency has raised concerns that Tehran has not granted all the access it promised to inspectors, particularly mentioning the Parchin site. Parchin, located southeast of Tehran, is suspected by some reports to be where the Islamic Republic has tested explosive triggers and neutron transport, experiments that could aid in the construction of a nuclear bomb. New Scientist writes that the negotiating parties of Iran and the 1+5 group stated earlier this month that they intended to resume discussions regarding inspections of Parchin after November 24 (December 3), which 'indicates that the parties knew that negotiations would not conclude by this deadline.' The IAEA recently announced that Iran, according to its agreement with the Agency, was supposed to answer questions on five issues, but in two cases, Iran refrained from providing responses. The topics of 'explosive trigger tests' and 'computer simulations related to nuclear explosions' are two issues that, according to Yukiya Amano, the Director General of the Agency, have not yet been clarified by Iran. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, regarding the Agency's insistence on these inspections, stated that the Islamic Republic 'does not accept any kind of inspection or special process' concerning its nuclear facilities. In a separate reaction, Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, also commented on the nuclear inspection requests, saying: 'We are constantly cooperating, [but] they are making tougher statements.' Nasrat Vahedi, a nuclear physics expert and former professor at the University of Munich, in an interview with Radio Farda, suggests that the Iranian officials' refusal to agree to inspections by Agency personnel at the Parchin military base could indicate the conduct of explosive tests at this site.