U.N.: Report on Iran’s Nuclear Past Won’t Be ‘Black and White’

A U.N. report on whether Iran has in the past carried out work related to nuclear weapons will not reach a definitive conclusion on the subject, the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is required under a landmark deal between major powers and Iran, which provides for a lifting of sanctions against the Islamic Republic in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

A clear verdict that weapons-related work occurred would have made it difficult for the deal to proceed, but diplomats have said for weeks that they do not expect the report to be clear-cut, which IAEA chief Yukiya Amano confirmed on Thursday.

“The report will not be black and white,” Amano told a news conference during a regular meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors when asked about the assessment due next week.

The investigation leading to the report, which is aiming to answer questions that have gone unanswered for years, had given the agency a better understanding of the “whole picture” of Iran’s past nuclear activities, Amano said, but gaps remained.

“What I can now say is that this is an issue that cannot be answered by yes and no,” Amano said.

This article appeared in print on page 3 of the November 27th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.