IAEA Inspectors Visit Iran’s Natanz N. Facility
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) made a visit to the Natanz nuclear facility in central Iran on Monday morning to verify whether Tehran would honor its commitment to the Geneva nuclear deal.
The team, led by Massimo Aparo, head of Iran Task Force in the Department of Safeguards of the IAEA, is tasked with reporting to the UN nuclear body on the start of the implementation of the Geneva nuclear deal.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany) had on November 24, 2013, signed a six-month deal on Tehran’s nuclear program based on which the world powers agreed to suspend some non-essential sanctions and to impose no new nuclear-related bans in return for Tehran's decision to freeze parts of its nuclear activities and to allow more inspection of its nuclear facilities.
The deal (also known as the Joint Plan of Action) is set to come into force today, with the two sides gearing up to take balanced, proportional steps in a period of six months to pave the way for a final solution.
The IAEA inspectors’ visit to Iran is to make sure that Tehran keeps its side of the breakthrough deal, by which the six world powers are also bound to suspend some restrictions against Iran on trade in gold, precious metals and petrochemicals, and in the auto industry.
Iran, in return, will oxidize its 20% enriched uranium in balanced steps. Tehran has committed the other side to diluting half of its 20 percent enriched uranium to no more than 5 percent enriched uranium, however, on the basis of a timetable which is proportional to the release of its blocked revenues held abroad.
