Long-term funding crucial to monitoring nuclear agreement with Iran, UN atomic chief warns

The head of the United Nations nuclear agency today called for long-term predictable funding to monitor Iran’s agreement with the international community to never seek, develop or acquire nuclear weapons.

“I am grateful to countries that have already made, or pledged, contributions and I count on the support of all Member States in ensuring predictable funding for this long-term verification and monitoring work,” UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano told his Board of Governors at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached in July between and Iran and a group of six countries – China, France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom and United States – the IAEA is entrusted with verifying and monitoring Iran’s commitments.

On Saturday, Mr. Amano announced that Iran had carried out all the preliminary requirements for the lifting of sanctions that the UN had imposed since it was revealed in 2003 that Iran had pursued various nuclear activities for 18 years in violation of its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Iran said its activities were purely peaceful for energy production and medical purposes but several countries suspected it was seeking to produce nuclear weapons.

“The way is now clear for the Agency to begin verifying and monitoring Iran’s nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA, as requested by the Security Council and authorized by the Board,” Mr. Amano said today.

“As I informed the Board in December, implementation of the Additional Protocol, and verification and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA, involve activities for which predictable funding is needed,” he added, referring to an addition to the NPT which enhances IAEA's ability to monitor nuclear activities to verify that they are peaceful.

“Implementation of the JCPOA marks the beginning of a new phase in relations between Iran and the IAEA. We have come a long way since the Agency first started considering the Iran nuclear issue in 2003. A lot of work has gone into getting us here. Equal effort will be required in the future to implement the JCPOA. The IAEA is fully committed to playing its part,” he said.