July 6 - Iran Bans U.S. Inspectors from All Nuclear Sites
Article: Miscellaneous
U.S. and
Iranian
officials
confirmed
Thursday
that no
American
nuclear
inspectors
will be
permitted to
enter the
country’s
contested
nuclear site
under the
parameters
of a deal
reached with
world powers
this week,
according to
multiple
statements
by American
and Iranian
officials.
Under the
tenants of
the final
nuclear deal
reached this
week in
Vienna, only
countries
with normal
diplomatic
relations
with Iran
will be
permitted to
participate
in
inspections
teams
organized by
the
International
Atomic
Energy
Agency (IAEA).
The
revelation
of this
caveat
has
attracted
concern from
some
analysts who
maintain
that only
American
experts can
be trusted
to verify
that Iran is
not cheating
on the deal
and
operating
clandestine
nuclear
facilities.
The
admission is
the latest
in
a series
of apparent
concessions
made by the
United
States to
Iran under
the deal.
Other
portions of
the
agreement
include a
promise by
the United
States to
help Iran
combat
nuclear
sabotage and
threats to
its program.
Susan Rice,
President
Obama’s
national
security
adviser, confirmed
this in an
interview
with CNN.
“There
are not
going to be
independent
American
inspectors
separate
from the
IAEA” on the
ground in
Iran,
Rice said.
“The IAEA
will be
doing the
inspections
on behalf of
the U.S. and
the rest of
the
international
community.”
Rice said
that the
Obama
administration
trusts those
countries
whose
relations
with Iran
are
normalized
to carry out
inspections
of the
Islamic
Republic’s
sensitive
nuclear
sites.
Elliott
Abrams, a
former White
House
National
Security
Council
director
under George
W. Bush,
criticized
the
administration
for
consenting
to Iranian
demands.
“We should
have
insisted
that the ‘no
Americans’
rule was
simply
unacceptable,”
Abrams said.
“But there
was no end
to U.S.
concessions.”
U.S.
concessions
on the
structure of
the
inspections
regime have
allowed Iran
to delay
inspections
of sensitive
sites for at
least 24
days.
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