Skip to main content

Congresswoman Tenney Presses IAEA to Maintain Independence of Agency’s Iran Probe

August 31, 2022

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22), member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today led a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi. In it, Tenney urged Grossi to maintain the independence of the agency’s probe into undeclared nuclear sites in Iran. The IAEA is potentially set to come under increasing pressure from the Biden Administration and others to prematurely close the investigation into Iran’s undeclared nuclear sites following demands from the Iranian regime, which has made it a precondition of joining a revived nuclear deal.

“Joe Biden is willing to jeopardize our national security and the credibility of the entire nuclear non-proliferation architecture in his misguided and irresponsible rush to rejoin the failed nuclear deal with Iran,” said Congresswoman Tenney. “Iran violated its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by hiding nuclear sites from IAEA inspectors and since 2018, it has continued to stonewall investigators and conceal key information about its nuclear program. It is malpractice for Joe Biden to even consider a deal with Iran while it continues to violate international law and hide information about its nuclear program. 

“I want Rafael Grossi to know that despite the pressure he may face from the Biden Administration and others to prematurely halt his probe, members of Congress support his mission,” Tenney continued. “We believe that the investigation into Iran’s nuclear secrets should be guided by the technical facts, not the political winds. If the IAEA terminates this investigation into Iran’s nuclear violations purely for political reasons to appease Iran, we are sending a message to rogue regimes around the world that we can be extorted.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran has not cooperated fully with the IAEA’s investigation into possible violations of its safeguards agreement under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). These violations first emerged following the Israeli government’s operation that unearthed a vast and secret Iranian nuclear archive. The nonpartisan IAEA, which is charged with investigating violations of safeguards agreements, has been pressing Iran to cooperate since 2018, but Iran has continued to stonewall investigators. In 2019, Iran even detained an independent IAEA inspector, confiscating her travel documents.

Despite Iran’s intransigence, which is a clear violation of its commitments under the NPT, the regime continues to demand that the IAEA’s ongoing safeguards probe be terminated before it will agree to rejoin a nuclear deal. It seems increasingly likely that the Biden Administration along with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China may be ready to cave to Iran’s demand, which would be a grave mistake for the nuclear non-proliferation architecture and undermine the credibility of the IAEA’s independent verification mission for years to come.

The letter was also signed by Reps. Jim Banks (IN-03), Ann Wagner (MO-02), Christopher Smith (NJ-04), Randy Weber (TX-14), Joe Wilson (SC-02).

The full text of the letter is available here.

###