The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today formally closed the books on their long-standing investigation into pact nuclear weapons work by Iran, with chief Amano Yukiya saying they’ve resolved the investigation as well as they’re ever going to.
The move follows the release of a report earlier this month resolving all questions on Iran’s nuclear past, confirming that Iran scrapped its weaponization program in 2003, and carried out no studies even tangentially related after 2009.
Amano went on to praise Iran for working “at quite high speed” on implementing their requirements under the P5+1 nuclear deal, saying that the verification of Iran’s finishing all these steps could come in a matter of weeks.
US officials have previously expressed annoyance at how fast Iran is implementing the deal, saying they aren’t prepared to live up to their side of the deal, lifting sanctions, so quickly. Iran seems to be hoping to have sanctions lifted before the February elections, and likely will with European nations. The US reaction, however, is likely to take awhile.
Beyond that, the Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed outrage at the IAEA ending the probe of Iran’s pre-2003 activities, saying the report confirmed that they had such activities and that in and of itself proved the probe needed to continue, and that any end to the investigation was “unwarranted.”