Thursday, November 15, 2007

IAEA on Iran

The International Atomic Energy Agency's latest report on Iran is in: "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions 1737 (2006) and 1747 (2007) in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Report by the Director General (15 November 2007). Activists should emphasize these points from the IAEA report, keeping in mind that weapons-grade uranium must be enriched to about 90% U-235:
  • "While Iran has stated that it has reached enrichment levels up to 4.8% U-235 at FEP, the highest U-235 enrichment measured so far from the environmental samples taken by the Agency from cascade components and related equipment is 4.0%" (emphasis added, p. 6).

  • "The Agency has been able to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran" (p. 8).

  • "The Agency has been able to conclude that answers provided on the declared past P-1 and P-2 centrifuge programmes are consistent with its findings" (p. 8).

  • "Iran has provided sufficient access to individuals and has responded in a timely manner to questions and provided clarifications and amplifications on issues raised in the context of the work plan" (p. 8).
Headlines about this IAEA report today, by the way, say a lot about political orientations of media, e.g.:
UK papers turn out to be the worst, much worse than US and Israeli papers in fact. The Russian and Chinese takes give us a ray of hope.

Update

This just in: "A meeting of world powers on tougher sanctions on Iran has been cancelled after China pulled out, European diplomatic sources said on Friday, revealing tensions after a key report into Tehran's atomic activities" (Sophie Walker, "UPDATE 2 -- Iran Sanctions Meeting Cancelled -- European Diplomats," Reuters, 16 November 2007). Great news.

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