Sunday marks the formal start – “adoption day” – of the nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): Iran is due to begin taking the steps it has agreed to on limiting its nuclear activities, and the U.S. and European Union will start preparations to lift sanctions, including the issuing of sanctions waivers. Actual sanctions relief is only due to take place at the next JCPOA milestone, “implementation day,” when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verifies that Iran has completed the steps laid out in the deal. (How long it takes to reach implementation day” depends on the speed at which the Iranians carry out those actions, but officials in Tehran have spoken about getting there by year’s end.)
Separately, the IAEA is due to report by December 15 on its probe into the “possible military dimensions” (PMDs) of Iran’s nuclear program. The agency said last week Iran had met an Oct. 15 deadline to provide the data necessary for it to wrap up the PMD investigation.
Senior administration officials briefing reporters on background at the weekend confirmed that the agency’s findings in the separate PMD investigation will not play a part in the sanctions lifting. “That final [PMD] assessment, which the IAEA is aiming to complete by December 15, is not a prerequisite for implementation day,” one of the four briefing officials said, adding that the conclusions drawn in the PMD report “are entirely up to the IAEA.” “We are not in a position to evaluate the quality, as you say, of the data. That is between Iran and the IAEA.”
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