Hardliners React To Amano in Parchin

The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukio Amano, spent one day in Tehran visiting theParchin military site and has now left the country, a visit that has enraged numerous hardliners living in the country.

“Yukio Amano left Tehran satisfied, following his one-day visit to Tehran,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation.

But although Amano may be satisfied, the visit was less well-received by many others.

“While the destiny of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in legal institutions is still ambiguous and the National Security Council has yet to announce its views on the JCPOA, the eleventh government has invited Mr Amano to inspect the Parchin site and has illegally begun implementing the JCPOA,” Raja News reported, a hardliner website that is opposed to the Rouhani administration.

Similarly, hardliner outlet Site 598 rejected the suggestion that Amano’s visit was just a mere formality, insteadclaiming that the trip was an attempt to do a surprise inspection. “This could be the start of formal inspections, which occur outside of the JCPOA framework, even before the Plan has officially been implemented,” the sitewrote.

Equally, Nuclear Iran, a website run by Mehdi Mohammadi, a member of the nuclear negotiating team under Ahmadinejad wrote in a short report, “This visit is in no way a formality and has been carried out to visually confirmwhat's going at the Parchin site.”

While Fars News Agency (FNA), another hardline media, points to contradictions between the Iranian authorities’ and Amano’s remarks as evidence of misconduct, “While the spokesperson for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation says that the sample preparation from Parchin site was carried out without the presence of IAEA representatives, Amano has claimed that the samples were taken with the agency being present and that his visit to the site was not a formality,” FNA writes.

It continues, “However the report says: 'If the Atomic Organisation’s spokesperson is not telling the truth, then how could such an act that goes against the most sensitive aspects of the deal take place and how does the organisation dare to play with our national interests?... If the chief of the IAEA is lying, just to satisfy Western parties, then things will only get worse because the agency is meant to be supervising the implementing of the nuclear deal and it should adopt this attitude when reporting on the deal's progress.”

These hardliner reactions are significant because Iranian authorities said that they would not allow agency inspectors to enter military sites in the country. Hardliners are trying to use Amano’s remarks to show that despite this, this promise has already been broken in the very first phase of the nuclear deal's implementation.

This same group is also insisting upon mistrust directed towards the IAEA in the past. Hardliners are stating that the IAEA is favouring Western interests and that Rouhani’s hope that the IAEA will act impartially is simplyunrealistic.

By highlighting the contradiction between the IAEA's stated position and the Iranian government's remarks, hardliners are able to increase media pressure on the government during the process of implementing the nuclear deal.

Despite this, hardliners do not believe that these ambiguities will undermine the nuclear deal. As Nuclear Iranwrote, “Amano would ultimately prepare a report that facilitates the way to beginning to implement the deal and to the lifting of sanctions.”

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