Iran is Refusing to Share Nuclear Data With the UN

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Since the end of February, Iran began restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities. Furthermore, this is the point in which the UN’s nuclear activity watchdog claimed it has been unable to acquire data needed to keep track of Iran’s nuclear program.

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The information was revealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in a confidential document that was sent to UN member countries and viewed by the Associated Press, which broke the story first.

Access to Data

Since February 23, the IAEA has not managed to get ahold of data stemming from electronic seals and enrichment monitors online; they also haven’t been able to see the measurement listings that are registered by its own measurement devices that are installed, according to the document.

After one of its nuclear sites was attacked last month, Iran said that it will begin producing uranium enriched to 60%; this is close to the level needed to build a nuclear bomb for the first time. Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is currently projected to be 16 times larger than the limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal.

The agency had previously recognized that Iran’s decision to restrict access to its nuclear facilities meant that surveillance cameras had less access. However, due to limited access, the IAEA noted in the document that it could only provide an estimate of Iran’s nuclear stockpile.

In February, Iran began limiting outside access to its nuclear facilities in an effort to persuade the Biden administration and European countries to ease punishing sanctions that were crippling their economy.

Donald Trump’s Sanctions

During his presidency, former President Trump imposed crushing sanctions on Iran, including a new set of sanctions just before he left office in January.

President Biden indicated in February that he would not relax sanctions on Iran in an attempt to persuade the state terror sponsor to resume talks…unless Tehran stopped enriching uranium, a crucial step in nuclear weapon development.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has asked that Biden lift the sanctions. He’s proposed that this could happen in exchange for Iran halting its nuclear development and returning to the provisions of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Biden, on the other hand, has stated that he wants to return to the nuclear deal, which Trump announced his withdrawal from in May 2018. Donald Trump had said that the deal was one of the worst ever made. He said It didn’t bring peace, it didn’t bring calm, and it never will any time soon.

Biden slammed his predecessor’s decision to pull out of the accord, which was the Obama administration’s crowning foreign policy achievement, as “reckless.”

Before he was elected, Biden wrote a CNN op-ed in September saying that he will offer Tehran a genuine way back to negotiation. He added that the United States would rejoin the nuclear deal as a point for beginning for subsequent negotiations if Iran returns to strict compliance with the agreement.