Head of U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Group Says Iran Isn’t Playing by the Rules

Iran’s nuclear program has again become a source of controversy on the global stage, and now Yukiya Amano, the top-ranking official in the United Nations’ nuclear oversight organization, has added his voice to the chorus of concerns.

According to Amano, who heads the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the current regime in Tehran has been less than compliant in terms of giving his monitoring group information and access to nuclear facts and facilities in that country in order to assuage fears and lift sanctions (via The Washington Post):

With the deadline nearing for international talks on constraining Iran’s nuclear program, Yukiya Amano, director general of the IAEA, said in an interview that Iran has replied to just one of a dozen queries about “possible military dimensions” of past nuclear activities.

[…] Amano said that the six global powers negotiating with Iran should insist that Iran implement the additional protocol that would allow IAEA inspectors the ability to go anywhere at anytime to examine sites suspected of harboring secret nuclear weapons development.

He said that he spoke to Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif on Feb. 7 in Munich but that Iran has not yet provided the information the agency needs.

Amano met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday and was slated to meet later in the day with National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

–Posted by Kasia Anderson