Iran has ceased cooperation with international nuclear weapons inspectors, an unreleased United Nations nuke watch report finds, sources told The Washington Free Beacon.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reportedly is no longer able to maintain mandated oversight of Iran's nuclear weapons program, which was put in place by the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the deal, but other members of the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom) have sought to maintain oversight.
"Any potential delay, denial, or deception by Iran that inhibits the IAEA's essential nuclear safeguards verification work in Iran would be completely unacceptable," a State Department official told the Beacon. "Iran must comply with its safeguards obligations, and immediately provide the IAEA nothing short of full cooperation."
The findings come in an IAEA report not released but referenced by the Institute for Science and International Security, a watchdog often privy to those reports, in tweets Friday.
"While the IAEA report remains restricted until released publicly, any indication that Iran is not fully cooperating with the IAEA raises serious questions," a State Department official told the Beacon. "We look to the IAEA to continue to inform the international community in a timely fashion of any lack of full Iranian cooperation consistent with IAEA safeguards practices."
The news comes amid President Trump's tweet Friday night, which declassified an image of a "catastrophic accident" at an Iranian launch pad:
"The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran. I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One."
Iran has reportedly picked up enrichment of Uranium this year, perhaps in an effort to rally support against the U.S.'s withdrawal from the JCPOA.
"Now we know Iran never intended to comply with the nuclear deal let alone with their broader obligations to the IAEA," an expert on Iran foreign relations told the Beacon. "The IAEA did their very best to bury it in the new report, but even they had to acknowledge the problem. And yet there are people inside the administration who want to keep the deal on life support. They're setting up the president for personal humiliation and, when that inevitably happens, they're going to own it."
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