South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Barbara Slavin writes for Al-Monitor on an address by Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency:
Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Al-Monitor Oct. 31 that Iran’s halting cooperation so far in explaining possible military-related nuclear work would not derail ongoing negotiations on a long-term nonproliferation agreement.
“It should not be an impediment,” Amano said after the conclusion of remarks at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Iran, which signed a new framework for resolving so-called PMD, or “possible military dimensions,” issues with the IAEA a year ago, has so far provided information about only one of a dozen key questions, Amano said, involving so-called exploding bridge wires. He said he was not surprised that cooperation had slowed as negotiators from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) enter the endgame in talks that currently have a Nov. 24 deadline.