It is time to focus on the “essential and expansive role” of the International Atomic Energy Agency in monitoring and “verifying Iran’s nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA.” US to name JCPOA implementation coordinator
Strategic Demands again is focusing on next steps of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the accompanying “additional protocol” and additional transparency measures.
The parameters for a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action are a matter of record and the accompanying IAEA task at hand is central to accomplishing the goals delineated to guarantee security in the region and beyond.
As US Department of Energy Secretary stated on September 14th about the expanded parameters and role: the IAEA’s “financial resources, political support, and legal authorities must be commensurate with the task at hand. We urge [the 165 nations who are ] Member States to contribute toward that end.”
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Update:
IAEA Director Visits Iran / Sept 20th Meetings
Visit focusing on “ongoing cooperation between the IAEA and the Islamic Republic of Iran in the context of the Road-map for the clarification of past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear programme.”
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Secretary Ernest Moniz: 2015 IAEA General Conference
September 14, 2015
Written Remarks for the Record
https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/usa2015.pdf
The United States commends the IAEA’s ongoing efforts to address all present and past concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program. We also welcome the IAEA’s essential and expansive role in verifying Iran’s nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA in the future. Success will draw upon the support of all Member States.
We know that the IAEA’s ability to successfully implement this deal hinges on the agency receiving sufficient funding to take on this complex task. We call on the international community to contribute to this request to ensure that the IAEA has the resources it needs to monitor this crucial agreement.
In addition to regular and extra-budgetary contributions that the United States provides to the IAEA annually, we are proud to partner with the IAEA on a range of additional technical support for its nonproliferation activities. The IAEA uses advanced monitoring technologies in their inspections work, many developed at the U.S Department of Energy’s national labs.
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Statement to 59th General Conference – Nuclear Verification in Iran
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Senior representatives of the 165 Member States of the IAEA are meeting this week in Vienna, Austria for the Agency’s 59th General Conference. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano delivered an opening statement.
This included an update on nuclear verification in Iran in his opening remarks (video excerpt).
Director Amano emphasized in more detail what we, at Strategic Demands, have been emphasizing as a key issue — the costs of the agency’s Iran oversight work will need to be addressed with “additional contributions” to IAEA for monitoring and verification, increases both through the “regular budget and extra-budgetary contributions.”
The Iran agreement has expanded the work of the IAEA — now it is time to make certain effective implementation of the agreement follows in course. The capabilities of the IAEA and its cooperation with P5+1 intelligence agencies and, particularly the US Department of Energy with its specialized knowledge base at Los Alamos and Sandia national labs, which continues to provide means of verification and direct assistance.
Again, the expansion of IAEA nuclear monitoring/verification capabilities are essential and the added capabilities will carry over from the Iran agreement to all NPT and nonproliferation monitoring capabilities under the aegis of the IAEA.
It should be stated clearly that this is a major accomplishment of the Iran agreement, that is, its “expansive” capabilities of the IAEA that will extend the agency’s already considerable monitoring/verification capabilities. The expanded capabilities, in cooperation with the US Department of Energy and intelligence agencies, will deliver new, additional nuclear oversight capabilities to address and prevent nuclear proliferation.
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More re: the JCPOA via the Center for Science and Security Studies
The JCPOA includes measures aimed to ensure that single- and dual-use items of nuclear relevance cannot be diverted to any clandestine nuclear program in Iran nor stockpiled.
The JCPOA includes measures intended to ensure that single and dual-use goods of nuclear relevance cannot be diverted to support any clandestine nuclear program in Iran, and that Iran cannot unduly stockpile such goods for nuclear end uses in the future. These measures form what the plan calls the ‘Procurement Channel’, which will be operationalised through a Procurement Working Group (‘PWG’) of the Joint Commission. Iran has committed to ensure that all procurement of nuclear-relevant goods– whether for nuclear end uses or civil end uses – will be procured through this mechanism.
The Procurement Channel
The channel was first publicly mentioned in an earlier version of the July agreement, in April 2015, which contained no specifics about what the Procurement Channel was or how it would function.4 The JCPOA goesconsiderably further, specifying how the procurement will function and what goods will pass through it. UN Security Council Resolution 2231 goes further still, describing the permits-based system that will apply to exports of arms and missiles.
Missiles and Related Technology
UNSCR2231 ‘calls upon’ Iran to stop pursuit of ballistic missiles and prohibits states from exporting missiles and related technology to Iran, as defined by the Missile Technology Control Regime, for a period of up to 8 years unless authorized by the UN Security Council in advance. Again, such authorization is unlikely to be forthcoming. It should be noted however that Iran’s leadership has stated that it will ignore the call to cease development of ballistic missiles and has already announced new ballistic and cruise missile systems. The restrictions on missile technology are therefore likely to be a key point of contention in the years ahead, with Iran likely to continue to try to covertly acquire controlled dual-use items with missile applications from the international marketplace.
Roles in Implementation
Role of the Procurement Working Group
In addition to the European External Action Service, which will administer the Procurement Working Group, there will be seven participating states: the UK, U.S., France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran.
The PWG will respond to specific requests by states to export goods to Iran. In practice, this will involve each state (see below) forwarding to the PWG licence applications received at the national level that are deemed relevant to the JCPOA. The participants will have 20 working days (extendable to 30) to consider any one export. The review will take place in parallel to national export licence assessment…
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September 17, 2015
Via Laura Rozen / Al-Monitor Back Channel
Mull is expected to oversee a small team of up to seven people, based at the State Department, who will coordinate US government implementation of the JCPOA across US government agencies as needed, including the White House, the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Department of Energy and so on.
The team will be “lean … not more than seven” people, and Mull “will have reach” across the entire interagency to convene what he needs, said a US official, speaking not for attribution to discuss the still-fluid plans for the office.
The small team working under Mull will be “coordinating this very large interagency group of people, hundreds of people,” across multiple agencies, including the State and Treasury departments and the labs employing Department of Energy nuclear experts, to ensure that both Iran lives up to its commitments under the JCPOA, and the United States lives up to its commitments, a second US official said, stressing that “the function of the team is a coordinating function”…
The other members of the P5+1 — the permanent five members of the UN Security Council plus Germany — are also in the process of organizing themselves to implement the JCPOA. The JCPOA mandated that a Joint Commission — comprised of each member of the P5+1, plus the European Union and Iran — be established to meet regularly to coordinate implementation of the landmark Iran nuclear deal and work out any disputes that may arise…
“Adoption day” of the JCPOA is Oct. 18 — 90 days after the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing the deal, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told journalists at a press conference in Vienna on Sept. 14 on the sidelines of an International Atomic Energy Agency general conference.
Barring surprises from Congress, after Sept. 17, “our expectation … is that the agreement will then go forward,” Moniz told journalists in Vienna on Sept. 14. “Certainly our thinking … is [then] on the question of implementation.”
“This is a large task,” Moniz said. “And my view … is that over the next year and a half, the most important thing is in fact implementing well on all sides, and essentially demonstrating the value [of the Iran nuclear deal] so that … next year, what we will see [is that] the Iran nuclear program has been rolled back substantially.”
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