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The sources referred to the IAEA's drive to visit one or more sites mentioned in a trove of data seized by Israeli intelligence agents, which were in turn singled out by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his speech to the UN General Assembly in 2018.See also:
At the time, Netanyahu claimed that Iran had a secret warehouse in Tehran where it stored large amounts of materials and equipment that were used to pursue a clandestine nuclear programme. The Islamic Republic has vehemently denied the allegations.
"The second report will be on Safeguards issues linked to sites that the IAEA did not get access to. We know of two cases, but we don't know whether the IAEA will put both in (the report)," one of the sources said.
The UN nuclear watchdog typically releases quarterly reports on what they describe as Iran's nuclear weapons programme, but on Tuesday the IAEA is expected to issue a special survey in which it will slam Iran's reluctance to give the go-ahead for IAEA inspectors to visit the sites of interest. Iran has repeatedly underscored that it would never seek to obtain a nuclear weapon, adding that its nuclear programme is purely peaceful.
This time, the source went on, "the general message is: there's a new sheriff in town", an apparent nod to the UN nuclear watchdog's new chief Rafael Grossi, who was appointed in October 2019 after former IAEA Director Yukiya Amano died earlier that year.
It was under Amano that IAEA inspectors visited one site mentioned by Netanyahu, obtaining environmental samples that reportedly showed traces of uranium.
Iran Takes No Further Steps to Violate JCPOA Since January Pledge - IAEA Chief
As for the latest developments, these come after Grossi stated last month that Tehran had taken no further steps toward violating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), following its pledge in early January to do so.
"After the fifth step, there hasn't been any follow-up," he told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, adding, "of course, they continue to enrich".
Following the 3 January assassination of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qasem Soleimani by a US airstrike in Iraq, Tehran announced that it would take further measures to rescind its commitments under the JCPOA. The deal lowered economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for its acceptance of very strict limits on nuclear material production and stockpiling.
Comment: Indeed, it looks like the Washington Establishment had finally woken up to the danger that Bernie might have actually taken the convention, and threw all its covert assets against him.
Proven DNC liar Donna Brazile went on Fox News to 'protest too much' that the DNC would 'never' rig the convention results against Sanders: In a fit of complete lack of self-awareness Killary chimed in, chiding Sanders about 'following the rules'. The mind boggles. Still Twitter immediately called the Hill-bot out The candidates did themselves no favors, with both Biden and Bloomberg making very public gaffes. Biden led off managing to insult two Iraq war veterans at once:
Bloomberg, not to be outdone, set a bad example of behavior, right in the middle of the coronavirus scare: In the meantime media pundits and peripheral players cluttered up the landscape. Rabid anti-Russian bit player Michael McFaul, of Magnitsky Act infamy, compared Biden's "comeback" to Rocky Balboa. One wonders if he's angling to regain his spot in the Deep State machine?