The nuclear deal inked this week between Iran and world powers bans U.S. nuclear experts from participating in inspections of Tehran's nuclear sites, American and Iranian officials confirmed.
Inspection teams tasked with ensuring that Iran adheres to the agreement to curb its nuclear program will only be comprised of experts from countries that have diplomatic relations with Iran, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said in an interview with CNN.
Under the historic international nuclear accord signed this week in Vienna between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers, Iran will dismantle key elements of its nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief, as HNGN previously reported. Iran has agreed to lower its uranium enrichment levels, relinquish thousands of centrifuges, and allow inspectors access to key nuclear sites for investigation, though Iran does have 24 days to grant access, which some say is far too long.
Because the U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with the country, American nuclear experts will not be allowed to participate in those ground inspections of nuclear facilities.
"The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] will field an international team of inspectors and those inspectors will, in all likelihood, come from IAEA members states, most of whom have diplomatic relations with Iran. We, of course, are a rare exception," Rice told CNN's Wolf Blitzer this week.
When asked directly about American inspectors, Rice said, "There are not going to be independent American inspectors separate from the IAEA" on the ground in Iran. "The IAEA will be doing the inspections on behalf of the U.S. and the rest of the international community."
The revelations worry some analysts who believe that only American experts can be trusted to verify that Iran is not cheating by operating secret nuclear facilities, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
One source who was in Vienna for the negotiations told the Beacon that the ban on U.S. inspectors is due to concessions made to Iran during the talks.
"The administration promised the American people and their lawmakers that we would be implementing the most robust inspection regime in the history of the world and that we would know what's happening on the ground," the source said. "Now they tell us America can't have anything to do with the inspection regime because we don't have diplomatic relations with Iran. I guess we should be grateful they're not solving this problem by opening up a U.S. embassy in Tehran."
Another area of concern is the 24 days Iran has to grant access to inspectors. If Iran refuses to allow IAEA inspectors access, five of the eight members of a joint commission would have to agree with the concerns of IAEA and the protocols involving the specific inspection, Rick Brennan, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corp. think tank, told PolitiFact.
"There are a number of provisions in the monitoring regime that enable Iran to delay, obstruct, and eventually prevent IAEA inspectors from effectively monitoring any portion of the Iranian nuclear program that it seeks to hide," Brennan said, voicing particular concern that "China and Russia will almost certainly side with Iran on most issues."
