Salahi Reiterates: JCPOA to Be Implemented by Mid-January

While Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister has conditioned the implementation of the Vienna nuclear agreement on resolving the issue of the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization predicted that this agreement would be implemented by mid-January. According to Fars News Agency, Ali Akbar Salehi said on Thursday, December 5, "If the JCPOA is implemented by the end of this month or mid-January, which according to my information we have made some progress, everything will go well and we will witness the implementation of the JCPOA." A day before Salehi's remarks, Abbas Araghchi, Iran's senior coordinator for the implementation of the nuclear agreement, warned the 5+1 group that if there were obstacles to closing the file on the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear activities (PMD), the implementation of the JCPOA would be halted, and "Iran would resume its nuclear activities." However, the Mehr News Agency quoted Salehi as saying that the negotiations between Araghchi and Iranian experts with agency officials have been "positive," and based on his assessment, "the outcome of this file (PMD) will be positive and within the framework of the national interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran." According to a confidential agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, signed under the title "roadmap" on July 23, ambiguities regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's previous nuclear program or PMD are to be resolved. Meanwhile, Yukiya Amano, the Director-General of the Agency, in his latest report, announced that he would present his final report to the Board of Governors of his organization on December 15. In another part of his remarks, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran stated that "perhaps all the costs related to nuclear technology, especially in the last 10 years, are equivalent to the costs necessary for the construction of two large dams." Salehi added, "This is while this amount of cost was also due to sanctions and the higher prices of purchasing some equipment, and part of the costs increased due to lost opportunities." He continued that "the budget we directly spent on nuclear technology is not even close to the figures that some have in mind for the construction of the Bushehr power plant." So far, Iranian officials have not announced a specific figure regarding the costs of Iran's nuclear program, and even Ahmad Shirzad, a representative from Isfahan in the sixth parliament, had previously stated that the costs of Iran's nuclear program were not transparent, and the parliament was not aware of these costs. Salehi's remarks come as Mohammad Saidi, a former deputy of the Atomic Energy Organization, had previously announced the cost of Iran's nuclear program to be less than two billion dollars in March 2015. Critics of Iran's nuclear program consider the costs of this program to be dozens of times higher than this figure.