Free Republic

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said its independence is paramount and it does not take intelligence presented to it at face value, in an apparent response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s description of a “secret atomic warehouse” in Iran. Netanyahu — who opposes the nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that the International Atomic Energy Agency is policing — made the statement in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week. He urged the IAEA to visit the site in Tehran. A U.S. State Department official later seconded that call. “The agency sends inspectors to sites...

Iran has rejected an assessment by the U.N. nuclear agency that it did past work on nuclear arms but is praising some aspects of the agency's investigation of the issue, reflecting satisfaction that the more than decade-long probe has ended. Closure of the file means that some questions about the alleged weapons work may never be resolved. Before the 35-nation board of the U.N's International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution last month ending the investigation, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told the meeting that his investigation couldn't "reconstruct all the details of activities conducted by Iran in the past." But...

Iranian leaders prevented a top International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) official from disclosing to U.S. officials the nature of secret side deals with the Islamic Republic by threatening harm to him, according to regional reports. Yukiya Amano, IAEA director general, purportedly remained silent about the nature of certain side deals during briefings with top U.S. officials because he feared such disclosures would lead to retaliation by Iran, according to the spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI). Amano was in Washington recently to brief members of Congress and others about the recently inked nuclear accord. However, he did not discuss...

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced that its director Yukiya Amano will not be visiting Iran. Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's Foreign Minister was previously quoted as having said that he would visit the country to discuss...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted Thursday to report Syria to the UN Security Council over evidence it was building a nuclear reactor at Deir Azzour. The plant was destroyed by the Israel Air Force in September 2007 while still under construction. The vote was held at a closed-door session of the IAEA board of governors in Vienna. Seventeen of 35 countries voted in favor of the resolution and six voted against it. The resolution was sponsored by the US and 12 other nations. Russia and China were among those who voted to reject the resolution. Of the remaining...

The incoming head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog said on Friday he did not see any hard evidence that Iran was trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons. "I don't see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this," Japan's Yukiya Amano told Reuters in his first direct comment on Iran's nuclear program since his election to head the International Atomic Energy Agency, when asked whether he believed Iran was seeking a nuclear weapons capability. Current IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei told the BBC last month it was his "gut feeling" that Iran was seeking the ability to...