World powers have "worked out a process that we believe will ensure that the IAEA has the access it needs" to all sites related to Iran's nuclear program, a senior Obama administration official told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The development may amount to progress in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, as access to Iran's military sites has been a major sticking point in the talks. Comments made by the US official did not clarify whether Tehran has agreed to the mechanism.
The United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany are negotiating with Iran to cap, restrict, monitor and partially roll back its nuclear program for a finite period, in exchange for sanctions relief.
They seek access for the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to any site it deems necessary to visit to ensure that Iran's declarations on its nuclear program are both correct and complete.
"The entry point isn't, ' we must be able to get into any military site,' because the United States of America wouldn't allow anybody to get into every military site," the official said. "So that's not appropriate. There are conventional military purposes; There are military secrets that any country has that they're not willing to share with other people."
"But if, in the context of this agreement, the Additional Protocol, PMD [Possible Military Dimensions], the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement— the IAEA believes that it needs access, and has a reason for that access, then we have a process to ensure that that access is given," the official continued.
The United Nations Security Council has determined that, over the past decade, Iran has been in violation of international norms by not complying with key tenets of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which it is a signatory. That is what these negotiations are ostensibly about: Seeking a deal that verifiably brings Iran back in line with its international obligations, which will then allow for Iran's return to the international community.
But Western powers appear in agreement that Iran is still entitled to a minimum level of privacy from international inspectors, who may indeed require "managed access" to Iran's conventional military sites.
Iran argues that such access is a violation of its very sovereignty. They believe it is an extraordinary standard never applied to any other nation.
Under the Additional Protocol, Iran may seek to resolve the IAEA's concerns by providing them material without granting them access. Iran may also grant access, but not allow IAEA inspectors to leave their facilities with any documents, photo evidence or trace material.
The process amounts to a negotiation, and the US official said that, under the recently agreed-upon mechanism, such negotiations will not be allowed to go on forever and will ultimately be resolved by an independent body.
The IAEA has these negotiations all the time with participating nations, another US official noted on Sunday, as over 120 countries have acceded to the Additional Protocol since its drafting in 1997.
The officials would not specify the amount of time their mechanism would allow for Iran to seek alternative paths to inspection.
