Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization announced on Tuesday that the Iranian regime will not implement the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would allow international inspectors the ability to go anywhere at any time to examine sites suspected of harboring secret nuclear weapons development.
Reacting to Monday’s remarks by International Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya Amano insisting that Iran should implement the Additional Protocol, the Kamalvandi said: “Mr Amano had indicated numerous times in his reports that if he wants to declare Iran’s nuclear activities as being peaceful, the Additional Protocol should be implemented… and on other occasions he has emphasized that the UN Security Council and the IAEA’s Board of Governors have called on Iran to implement the Additional Protocol, even though we have responded to this issue a number of times.”
Kavalvandi added: “First of all, accepting the Additional Protocol is voluntary, and in addition to that, we do not consider the UN Security Council and Board of Governors resolutions legal and thus we have not implemented them up to now.”
The director general of IAEA, who on Monday attended a conference hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the Washington Post in an interview:
“Iran has failed to provide the information or access needed to allay the agency’s concerns about the weapons potential of the country’s nuclear program.”
He added that “Iran has replied to just one of a dozen queries about ‘possible military dimensions’ of past nuclear activities.”
Amano told the Washington Post that Iran has provided only “very limited” information about two other issues, while the rest have not been addressed at all.
Amano said that the six global powers negotiating with Iran should insist that the country implement the Additional Protocol, adding that it will be “very much needed. It will give us more powerful tools to look at activities not declared to us.”
At the core of negotiations between Tehran and the P5+1 are the goals of establishing guarantees that Iran’s ruling theocracy will not obtain nuclear weapons, and blocking all of its possible pathways to a bomb.
Existing concerns are aggravated by the Iranian regime’s two-decade long track record of concealing its nuclear program, particularly the aspects pertinent to possible military dimensions.
On February 24, the National Council of Resistance of Iran revealed detailed information about the existence of a secret parallel system, as well as the existence of a secret site, “Lavizan-3” in Tehran.
According to the information provided by the NCRI that were gathered by the network of the People’s Mojahedijn Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) inside the country, Tehran has been enriching uranium secretly at this site for years using advanced centrifuges.
Maryam Rajavi, the President –elect of the Iranian Resistance on February 7 underscored the need for the regime to be compelled to accept the Additional Protocol as part and parcel of blocking its pathway to acquiring the nuclear bomb. “The clerical regime must be compelled to fully implement Security Council resolutions, stop uranium enrichment and allow snap inspections of all facilities and suspect sites,” she said.
