Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 20
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Former Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Olli Heinonen believes that the future administrations [in P5+1 Group members] will have to discuss the issue of Iran’s nuclear program.
“The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka nuclear deal) is a complex agreement, which puts a temporary lid on some of the nuclear activities of Iran,” Heinonen told Trend.
Iran doesn’t forgo uranium enrichment and has spent on fuel reprocessing, sensitive technologies which have both peaceful and military applications, he added.
“With regard to the uranium enrichment, Iran is actually developing further its capabilities. Thus, the JCPOA only postpones the resolution of the basic problem; Iran's drive to enrich uranium under circumstances when there is both an oversupply of such services and at the same time no economically or technically justified reason to proceed on that route,” Heinonen noted.
“In other words, P5+1 pushed in 2015 with the JCPOA the case for future administrations to solve,” the expert concluded.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has recently described the nuclear accord that was agreed between Iran and the world powers in 2015 as a “failure”, adding the deal amounts to “passing the buck” on to future administrations.
“An unchecked Iran has the potential to travel the same path as North Korea and to take the world along with it,” said Tillerson, claiming the nuclear accord represents the “failed approach” of the past.