A senior Iranian lawmaker says any move by US President Donald Trump to leak confidential documents on the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries would be harmful to the UN nuclear agency and not Iran.
“If Trump wants to publish confidential documents between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it will in fact constitute a violation of the agency’s obligations, because the agency has been committed not to make Iran’s confidential nuclear information and documents available to any country, including the US,” Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Sunday.
He added that such a move by the US would pose challenges to the IAEA as an international body.
During the US election campaign, reports circulated indicating that Trump would reveal certain documents on Iran's nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), allegedly kept hidden by Obama administration.
An article carried by the Daily Beast website late last December quoted an “individual who has participated in those conversations” as saying that “senior officials who will be part of the Trump administration are already discussing what so-far-unseen information about the Iran agreement they will be able to make public after January.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Boroujerdi said the IAEA had promised to allow no information leak about the JCPOA, but Iran welcomes the release of any confidential document, because it will reaffirm the Islamic Republic’s rightfulness and commitment.
Notwithstanding, in case of a move by the US to leak any documents, the IAEA must be accountable to Iran over lack of commitment to its obligations, the legislator pointed out.
“I do not think that the agency would want to cross the redlines set and endorsed by its member countries,” he said.
Last December, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries released some previously restricted documents about the JCPOA to support the argument that Tehran is not exceeding the limits imposed on its stockpile of enriched uranium.
The IAEA circulated the clarifications laid out in eight documents to its member states after receiving a letter from the European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, who authorized the publication.
The UN nuclear agency is monitoring the JCPOA which was signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany on July 14, 2015.
Under the JCPOA, which was implemented on January 16, 2016, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.