Following up on “this post”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1511/text-of-iaea-iran-agreement, it looks like the IAEA and Iran have agreed to resolve each of the various outstanding issues in phases. Although there is a timetable of sorts, it appears as though Tehran is insisting that the agency resolve each question completely before Iran fully cooperates with the IAEA on other outstanding matters.

The questions concerning Tehran’s past plutonium experiments are a good example.

First, a brief aside: the document seems to make some news, asserting that the IAEA has resolved its outstanding concerns:

bq. In order to conclude and close the file of the issue of plutonium (Pu), the Agency provided Iran with the remaining questions on 23 July 2007. During a meeting in Iran between representatives of the Agency and Iran, Iran provided clarifications to the Agency that helped to explain the remaining questions. In addition, on 7 August 2007, Iran sent a letter to the Agency providing additional clarifications to some of the questions. On *20 August 2007 the Agency stated that earlier statements made by Iran are consistent with the Agency’s findings, and thus this matter is resolved.*

The document goes on to say that this resolution “will be communicated officially by the Agency to Iran through a letter.”

Second, the next portion of the agreement has a timetable for Tehran and the IAEA to resolve the outstanding issues concerning its P-1 and P-2 centrifuges. But Iran’s adherence to that timeline

bq. assumes that the Agency *announces the closure of the Pu-experiments outstanding issue by 31 August 2007, and its subsequent reporting in the Director General’s report to the September 2007 Board of Governors.*

This whole deal sounds really complicated, but maybe it’s a way for the world to find out WTF Iran has been up to.

I would point out, though, that Tehran’s adherence to its additional protocol would make the world feel a lot better because it would deal with _current_ enrichment-related R&D.

*Update:*

_AFP_ reports that the IAEA and Iran are on the same page RE: the plutonium issue:

bq. A UN official told AFP the *document reflected both the IAEA’s and Iran’s views* and that the question of whether Iran had experimented with plutonium more recently than it had stated and that there was plutonium unaccounted for had been resolved.