US gave secret exemptions to Iran to meet deal deadline

This file photo shows US secretary of state John Kerry (left) with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna, Austria. (Photo: AFP)

The United States and its negotiating partners agreed “in secret” to allow Iran to evade some restrictions in last year’s landmark nuclear agreement in order to meet the deadline for it to start getting relief from economic sanctions, according to a report reviewed by Reuters.

The report is to be published on Thursday by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said the think tank’s president David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector and co-author of the report. It is based on information provided by several officials of governments involved in the negotiations, who Mr Albright declined to identify. Reuters could not independently verify the report’s assertions.

“The exemptions or loopholes are happening in secret, and it appears that they favour Iran,” Mr Albright said.

Among the exemptions were two that allowed Iran to exceed the deal’s limits on how much low-enriched uranium (LEU) it can keep in its nuclear facilities, the report said. LEU can be purified into highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium.

The exemptions, the report said, were approved by the joint commission created to oversee the implementation of the accord. The commission is comprised of the United States and its negotiating partners — called the P5+1 — and Iran.

One senior “knowledgeable” official was cited by the report as saying that if the joint commission had not acted to create these exemptions, some of Iran’s nuclear facilities would not have been in compliance with the deal by January 16, the deadline for the beginning of the lifting of sanctions.

The administration of President Barack Obama informed Congress of the exemptions on January 16, said the report. Mr Albright said the exemptions, which have not been made public, were detailed in confidential documents sent to Capitol Hill that day — after the exemptions had already been granted.

The US administration has said that the world powers that negotiated the accord — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — made no secret arrangements.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the joint commission and its role were “not secret.” He did not address the report’s assertions of exemptions.

Diplomats at the United Nations for the other P5+1 countries did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the report.

The report’s assertions are likely to anger critics of the nuclear deal. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to renegotiate the agreement if he’s elected, while Democrat Hillary Clinton supports the accord.

Mr Albright said the exceptions risked setting precedents that Iran could use to seek additional waivers. He served as an inspector with the UN International Atomic Energy Agency team that investigated former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons programme.

While he has neither endorsed nor denounced the agreement, he has expressed concern over what he considers potential flaws in the nuclear deal.

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, a leading critic of the Iran deal and a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in an email: “I was not aware nor did I receive any briefing (on the exemptions).”

As part of the concessions that allowed Iran to exceed uranium limits, the joint commission agr-eed to exempt unknown quantities of 3.5 percent LEU contained in liquid, solid and sludge wastes stored at Iranian nuclear facilities, according to the report. The agreement restricts Iran to stockpiling only 300 kg of 3.5 percent LEU.

The commission approved a second exemption for an unknown quantity of near 20 percent LEU in \"lab contaminant\" that was determined to be unrecoverable, the report said. The nuclear agreement requires Iran to fabricate all such LEU into research reactor fuel.