IRAN/NIKKI HALEY/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/UN: “The world’s nuclear inspectors complicated President Trump’s effort to find Iran in violation of the two-year-old nuclear accord with the United States and five other world powers, declaring on Thursday [8-31-17] that the latest inspections found no evidence that the country is breaching the agreement.
Mr. Trump has made no secret of his desire to scrap the agreement, even over the objections of many of his top national security officials. But the reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency make it harder to create an argument that Iran is in violation.
The latest declaration by the I.A.E.A. came just a week after Mr. Trump had sent his ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, to Vienna to meet with the top agency officials, who are responsible for conducting the inspections and monitoring Iranian compliance.
Ms. Haley was pressing the agency to be more aggressive, and some administration officials have argued that the I.A.E.A. should demand access to a series of Iranian military sites. But under the accord, the agency can only do so when there is a reasonable suspicion that Iran is conducting illicit nuclear-related activities at those sites.
So far, according the I.A.E.A. and American officials, the United States has not delivered a list of suspect locations.”
-David E. Sanger and Rick Gladstone, “Contradicting Trump, U.N. Monitor Says Iran Complies With Nuclear Deal,” The New York Times online, Aug. 31, 2017