Working out how to verify Iran's compliance with its landmark new nuclear deal with world powers will "take some time," the head of the UN atomic agency cautioned today.
"We are now looking at the way in which the elements of the agreement relevant to the Agency could be put into practice," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yuyika Amano said.
"This will include the implications for funding and staffing. This analysis will take some time," Amano told a closed-door meeting of the IAEA's board of governors, according to the text of his remarks.
In a major diplomatic breakthrough on Sunday in Geneva, Iran agreed with the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany -- the P5+1 -- to curb parts of its nuclear programme for six months in exchange for sanctions relief.
This six-month period has not begun and the start-date will be negotiated in upcoming "technical discussions" that will include the IAEA, according to a spokesman for P5+1 chief negotiator and EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton.
This six-month stop is meant to make it more difficult for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon and to build confidence while Tehran and the P5+1 hammer out a long-term accord.
Iran has pledged to limit uranium enrichment to low fissile purities. It will also lower the purity of its entire stockpile of medium-enriched material, which is relatively easy to convert to weapons-grade, or convert it to another form.
Iran also pledged for six months "not to make further advances" at its Fordo and Natanz enrichment sites and the Arak heavy water reactor, which could provide Iran with weapons-grade plutonium once operating.
This will all have to be verified by the IAEA, meaning a considerably bigger workload for the Vienna-based body and its Japanese chief Amano.
The IAEA already keeps close tabs on Iran's nuclear work, with personnel almost constantly in the country inspecting machinery and measuring stockpiles to make sure Tehran is not diverting fissile material to make a bomb.
But under Sunday's deal this will go further, with daily IAEA visits to enrichment sites and access to centrifuge assembly sites, uranium mines, and more frequent trips to Arak -- in addition to verifying the enrichment freeze.
Iran will also have to provide information on plans for new nuclear facilities, descriptions of every building at nuclear sites and updated design information on the Arak reactor, according to the text of Sunday's agreement.
Amano also said today that Iran has invited the agency to visit the heavy water production plant at Arak on December 8, in what would be the first inspection there since August 2011.
The IAEA already conducts regular visits of the actual reactor site at Arak, but says it has not received updated detailed design information since 2006.
Iran's invitation to the IAEA ties in with a separate "joint statement on a framework for cooperation" signed in Tehran by Iran and Amano on November 11 aimed at Iran providing increased transparency.
