Free Republic

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said its independence is paramount and it does not take intelligence presented to it at face value, in an apparent response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s description of a “secret atomic warehouse” in Iran. Netanyahu — who opposes the nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that the International Atomic Energy Agency is policing — made the statement in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week. He urged the IAEA to visit the site in Tehran. A U.S. State Department official later seconded that call. “The agency sends inspectors to sites...

The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s chief urged major powers on Tuesday to clarify a part of their nuclear deal with Iran dealing with technology that could be used to develop an atom bomb, an area Russia said the agency should leave alone. The 2015 pact between six major powers and Iran restricts its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Compliance with those curbs is being verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano has defended the deal as a major step forward while declining to comment specifically on criticism of...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted Thursday to report Syria to the UN Security Council over evidence it was building a nuclear reactor at Deir Azzour. The plant was destroyed by the Israel Air Force in September 2007 while still under construction. The vote was held at a closed-door session of the IAEA board of governors in Vienna. Seventeen of 35 countries voted in favor of the resolution and six voted against it. The resolution was sponsored by the US and 12 other nations. Russia and China were among those who voted to reject the resolution. Of the remaining...

The incoming head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog said on Friday he did not see any hard evidence that Iran was trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons. "I don't see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this," Japan's Yukiya Amano told Reuters in his first direct comment on Iran's nuclear program since his election to head the International Atomic Energy Agency, when asked whether he believed Iran was seeking a nuclear weapons capability. Current IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei told the BBC last month it was his "gut feeling" that Iran was seeking the ability to...