JCPOA will be preserved after US election: Gareth Porter

Press TV has conducted an interview with Gareth Porter, an investigative journalist from Washington, to discuss the recent remarks by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano about the implementation of Iran’s nuclear deal.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Not getting too technical about this, there is always a big question mark that this whole thing could be politicized in respect where at any point the IAEA where there to be pressure from outside powers might find something wrong with the way that Iran is even complying, but then putting a question mark over the way that Iran is perhaps complying. Is there a possibility of that?

Porter: I do not think that that is a very large possibility for the following reason. I mean it is clear that director general Amano is following the cues that he gets from Washington; this has been clear for years. Ever since he took the office of director general IAEA, he has been clearly following the political line of the United States towards Iran and that line called for him to make sure that Iran was kept under pressure by being accused of having basically a nuclear weapons research and development program in the past and perhaps might even have continued after 2003 and then that stopped abruptly last June or beginning of July when the United States government decided that it was ready to sign an agreement with Iran and basically they needed Amano to make sure that his final report will support that political aim of the United States.

So ever since then Amano has been taking a line that Iran is indeed in line with the requirements of this agreement and I think for that it is very clearly the result of his understanding that the United States government, that the Obama administration wants him to ensure that nothing will happen that will disrupt the implementation of this agreement. As long as the Obama administration is in office, therefore we can count on Amano continuing to take that line.

Press TV: And if Obama administration leaves and a new president comes in the US?  

Porter: Then there would be a new ball game. It would be hard to predict precisely what a Republican administration might do; I would not necessarily assume that a Republican administration even though it came to office with a very vociferous opposition to the JCPOA would necessarily decide ultimately that it would deep six it. I think that the US National Security State has vested interest at this point in continuing to have this agreement remain in implementation. So it is not at all clear to me that the election of a Republican would necessarily result in an end to the JCPOA. 

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