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Leaving Iran's Nuclear Past a Mystery

(New York Times) David E. Sanger - The Iranian nuclear crisis began a decade ago when Tehran's leaders refused to answer questions from international inspectors about evidence that a secret team of scientists, working in military and university laboratories, was experimenting with the technology to build a nuclear weapon. Ten years later, as the final report of the International Atomic Energy Agency on the "possible military dimensions" of the Iranian nuclear program made clear on Wednesday, Iran's rulers are unwilling to give much more insight into evidence of their nuclear experimentation than they were before the nuclear deal this summer. And for now at least, the Obama administration sees little need to force Tehran to provide answers to questions that, like the Bush administration before it, it once insisted could not remain unaddressed. The decision to essentially close the file raises questions over whether the world's nuclear watchdog has lost its ability to strike fear into nations secretly pursuing the bomb. If Iran could avoid fully answering many of the questions about 12 different technologies it was pursuing, will it be emboldened to stiff-arm inspectors as they seek to enforce the nuclear deal? "We have no way to force states to come clean, and never have," said one senior agency official.
2015-12-04 00:00:00
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