Iran's Nuclear Archives Must Not Be Ignored

Emily B. Landau, Ephraim Asculai

Security, Middle East

Tehran's nuclear ambitions, which are documented in archives, can only be delayed thorough insistent inspection activity by the international community.

In her March 5, 2019, statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors on the subject of monitoring and inspection in Iran, U.S. Ambassador Jackie Wolcott stated that “[t]he United States welcomes the Director General’s February 22 report on verification and monitoring in Iran. We once again extend our appreciation to the Director General, and . . . [his] staff for their continued dedication in carrying out their responsibilities in Iran. . . . The Director General’s thorough reporting on Iran’s nuclear activities remains essential for the Board to continue accurately assessing Iran’s implementation of its safeguards obligations and nuclear commitments.”

Unfortunately, the implication of this statement is misleading. IAEA inspections are taking place, but only in facilities that have been pre-declared to the IAEA and are mentioned in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Iran Deal. The IAEA is trying to avoid provoking Iran by not making requests regarding facilities and activities that became known to the IAEA through information received from outside sources—certainly not from the treasure trove of information about Iran’s military nuclear plans that is contained in the Iran nuclear archives, which Israel took from the heart of Iran and made available to the IAEA in early 2018.

The Iran nuclear archives are important for many reasons, not only because the documents could prove that Iran is still engaged in illegal nuclear weapons work today. Rather, the archives are significant because they allow us to gain a better understanding of what Iran actually did in the past in the nuclear realm; they tell us about the people who worked on the military program, where they were doing it, which equipment they were using, and how Iran succeeded in deceiving the IAEA from 2003, which is when it reorganized its weapons program and took it deeper underground.

The immediate claim made by some states that everything was already known to the IAEA is also untrue. As is clear from reports published by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS)—whose president has seen and assessed significant portions of the archives—that the depth and breadth of information in the documents goes well beyond what was in the hands of the IAEA, under the heading of the “Possible Military Dimensions” (PMD) of Iran’s nuclear program.