France has demanded the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency do its job, and provide all the information in its possession – with the “necessary detail” – on whether Iran has carried out work on nuclear weapons of mass destruction in the past.
According to a statement Monday by the French Foreign Ministry, Paris is especially concerned that the issue of Iran’s past nuclear activities will not be addressed properly.
“France with interest will become aware of this report this week,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Romain Nadal in a news briefing.
“We are expecting that the IAEA provides with the necessary detail all the information it possesses.”
A final assessment by IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano “on all past and present outstanding issues described in [his] November 2011 report” is expected sometime this week.
Amano told the UN’s nuclear monitoring agency at the meeting of its board of governors the IAEA could not “provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran” and and it was not possible to “conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”
The report is likely to tip the balance toward either lifting international economic sanctions – as provided in the nuclear deal negotiated in Vienna this summer – or retracting that agreement if any of the parties, France included, are dissatisfied with evidence of work on atomic weapons.
