Francois Murphy of Reuters reported on May 28 what IAEA Director General Grossi said that day about Iran’s Additional Protocol:        [Grossi] stopped short of saying Iran should resume implementation of the Additional Protocol. Iran implemented it under the 2015 deal, until the U.S. exit in 2018. Asked if he meant the protocol should be applied, Grossi said "I'm very practical," adding that this was not a subject in the talks. While the IAEA is not part of the talks, he said he was in touch with both sides, including U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. "I don't think they are discussing [the Additional Protocol] in these terms. I don't see the discussion as being a discussion on legal norms to be applied or not. I tend to see this as more of an ad hoc approach," said Grossi.   If DG Grossi is correct, that is good news. Iran’s Additional Protocol is not being considered as part of an extra-NPT agreement (as it was in JCPOA). However, DG Grossi missed a...

The New York Times reported: U.S. officials were concerned Israel could decide to strike Iran with little warning and said U.S. intelligence estimated that Israel could mount an attack on Iran in as little as seven hours.  The bombing of the enrichment facilities at Fordow and Natanz will use the largest conventional bombs, so-called MOAB “Mother of All Bombs.” The destruction will be enormous; it is probable that any personnel in those facilities will be killed or injured.   Therefore, no IAEA inspectors should be at the nuclear facilities in Iran at the time of the bombing. Assuring the physical safety of IAEA inspectors becomes its Director General’s highest priority.   I would like to see the Israeli government commit that the IAEA Director General will receive advance notice of bombing so that Agency inspectors can move to safe locations inside or out of the country.  An Australian colleague, retired nonproliferation lawyer diplomat, informed me that t...

Today, May 28, 2025, I am expanding my blog from its initial scope of documenting the reporting of my grandfather, Don Martin, as the New York Herald war correspondent in WWI, to include my current and continuing interests in the conundrum about Iran’s nuclear program and more generally about International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) international safeguards, with which I have been involved since 1985.  I start with  What is needed to resolve the Iran nuclear issue. A possible new nuclear deal with Iran is receiving much attention. The Foreign Affairs article of May 26, 2025, by Richard Nephew poses the question “Is a Good Iran Deal Possible?” More than a new deal is needed to resolve the Iran nuclear issue, as presented in this post.   There are two threads in the long-standing Iran nuclear drama that it is important to recognize and take intoaccount. The primary one is Iran’s Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations;the other is an extra-NPT agreeme...