Tag: UN watchdog

International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Amano Passes Away at 72

The 72-year-old Japanese diplomat had held the position of IAEA director-general since 2009, steering the agency through a period of intense diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear programme while seeking in vain to return to North Korea.

Vienna: UN nuclear watchdog chief Yukiya Amano has died, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday, the day he had been expected to announce he would step down early because of an illness that visibly weakened him over the past year.

The 72-year-old Japanese diplomat had held the position of IAEA director-general since 2009, taking over from Mohamed ElBaradei and steering the UN agency through a period of intense diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear programme while seeking in vain to return to North Korea.

“The Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency regrets to inform with deepest sadness of the passing away of Director General Yukiya Amano,” the IAEA said in a statement.

Amano had been preparing to leave his position in March, well before the end of his third four-year term, which ran until Nov. 30, 2021. Diplomats who follow the agency had said he planned to announce his decision on Monday.

The IAEA announced last September that Amano had undergone an unspecified medical procedure. The specific nature of his illness has remained a taboo subject within the agency, diplomats said, but with each public appearance, he had appeared increasingly frail.

Monday’s statement did not lay out a time frame for naming a successor, though the race to succeed him had been taking shape since last week when it became clear he would step down early.

Also read: Iran Implementing Nuclear-Related Commitments, says UN Atomic Watchdog

Argentina’s ambassador to the IAEA, Rafae Grossil, is running to succeed Amano, and diplomats say the agency’s chief coordinator Cornel Feruta of Romania, effectively Amano’s chief of staff, is likely to run. Others could also enter the fray.

While each candidate will have their own management style, it is widely expected that there will be no major change in the agency’s handling of its most high-profile issues, including Iran and a potential return to North Korea, which expelled IAEA inspectors in 2009.

The lack of information around Amano’s illness was also indicative of how his office dealt with sensitive information in general.

Diplomats from IAEA member states often expressed frustration in private at not obtaining more confidential information from Amano and his staff on issues such as its policing of Iran’s nuclear deal with major powers.

Amano, however, insisted that his agency was technical rather than political in nature, striking a contrast with his predecessor ElBaradei, who clashed with US officials over Iran and was often less guarded in discussing sensitive issues.

(Reuters)

Iran and World Powers Meet in Vienna to Salvage Nuclear Deal

Iranian officials have said that the key for them is to ensure that oil exports do not halt and that Tehran still has access to the SWIFT international bank payments messaging system.

Vienna: Iran wants world powers to guarantee oil revenue and investment into the country despite US sanctions when ministers meet on Friday to save the 2015 nuclear deal, but European states will fall short of Iran’s demands, said diplomats.

In May, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the multinational deal under which sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for curbs on its nuclear programme, verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Washington has since told countries they must stop buying the OPEC producer’s oil from November 4 or face financial consequences.

Foreign ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia will meet with their Iranian counterpart in Vienna for the first time since Trump left the pact, but diplomats see limited scope for salvaging the deal.

“The objective is to save the deal. We’ve made some progress, including on safeguarding some crude sales, but it’s unlikely to meet Iranian expectations. It’s also not just about what the Europeans can do, but also about how the Chinese, Russians, Indians, others can contribute,” said a senior European diplomat.

The pillars of the EU’s strategy are European investment bank lending, a special measure to shield EU companies from US secondary sanctions and a commission proposal that EU governments make direct money transfers to Iran‘s central bank to avoid US penalties.

“The Iranians expect us to say what we are going to do to keep the deal alive. We will have to see if it is going to be good enough for them,” said an EU source.

Describing the Friday meeting as important, Iranian officials have said that the key for them is to ensure that oil exports do not halt, and that Tehran still has access to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) international bank payments messaging system.

During a visit to Europe this week, President Hassan Rouhani warned that Iran could reduce its co-operation with the UN nuclear watchdog, having already threatened Trump of the “consequences” of fresh sanctions against Iranian oil sales.

Rouhani was quoted by state media and on his website after conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel as having told them that he was disappointed with their package, which did not go far enough.

“SWIFT is the key but Iran has to stay in at least until the end of the year to maintain divisions between the EU and US, keep some credibility and try and survive amidst forthcoming sanctions,” said Sanam Vakil, associate fellow at Chatham House, a London-based international think tank.

While talks are expected to focus purely on the nuclear deal, they come amid increasing rhetoric from the Trump administration that Iran poses a serious security threat.

An Austria-based Iranian diplomat was among four people arrested on suspicion of plotting an attack on an Iranian opposition group in France last week.

The issue could be a distraction in the Vienna talks. Iran has said it had nothing to do with the plot and has demanded the official be released without delay.

Any confirmation that Iranian authorities were behind the plot could make it politically difficult for European leaders to continue to back the nuclear deal.

(Reuters)