EXCERPT:
In 2002, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began investigating allegations that
Iran had conducted clandestine nuclear activities. Ultimately, the agency reported that some of
these activities had violated Tehran’s IAEA safeguards agreement
Iran’s failure to notify the IAEA of its decision to enrich uranium to a maximum of 20% uranium-235 in time for agency inspectors to adjust their safeguards procedures may, according to a February 2010 report from Amano, have violated Iran’s IAEA safeguards agreement.
Tehran may also have violated provisions of Article II which state that non-nuclear-weapon
states-parties shall not “manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear
explosive devices” or “seek or receive any assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons or
other nuclear explosive devices.”
As noted, the IAEA is continuing to investigate evidence of what El Baradei described in June
2008 as “possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”Such activities may indicate
that Tehran has violated both Article II provisions described above
The breadth of Iran’s nuclear development efforts, the secrecy and deceptions with which
they have been conducted for nearly 20 years, its redundant and surreptitious procurement
channels, Iran’s persistent failure to comply with its obligations to report to the IAEA and to
apply safeguards to such activities, and the lack of a reasonable economic justification for
this program leads us to conclude that Iran is pursuing an effort to manufacture nuclear weapons, and has sought and received assistance in this effort in violation of Article II of the
NPT.