VIENNA: The International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday adopted an inspections plan with India that is crucial to a landmark nuclear deal between New Delhi and Washington.
The so-called safeguards agreement, approved by consensus, will effectively allow UN monitors access to 14 existing or planned nuclear reactors by 2014. The facilities are not listed.
India has not signed international nonproliferation accords and has tested nuclear weapons. Approval of the deal is key to its efforts to gain access to legal imports of nuclear fuel and technology from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which includes the United States.
It would be a reversal of more than three decades of US policy.
The 35-nation board of governors of the UN nuclear agency approved the agreement despite criticism that ambiguous wording in the deal could end up limiting international oversight of India’s reactors, undermine the international nonproliferation regime and possibly help supply its arms programs with fissile material.
India must strike a separate agreement with the Nuclear Suppliers Group before the deal can go to the US Congress for approval.
Iran, which is under international pressure over its nuclear program, was among those with reservations about the plan. It expressed concern that the US was trying to set a precedent and pave the way for Israel to continue what Iran called “its clandestine weapons activities,” according to an Iranian statement before the approval. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s top representative, said in his speech that Tehran was seriously concerned about what he called a US double standard policy, and said it would continue to undermine the credibility, integrity and universality of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
India’s neighbor Pakistan has been vocal in its opposition to the deal, but did not oppose consensus.
