Monitoring, Verification and Compliance Challenges for a Final Nuclear Deal with Iran

A Conversation with David Albright, Olli Heinonen, and Orde Kittrie
Moderated by Mark Dubowitz

In a modification of President Reagan’s famous expression, Secretary John Kerry has said that the United States will “verify and verify” any nuclear deal with Iran. What kind of monitoring and verification mechanisms will be necessary to ensure Iranian compliance with an agreement? And do the United States and the international community have sufficient and effective tools to guarantee nuclear transparency, resolve outstanding IAEA concerns about Iran’s military nuclear activities, and prevent any Iranian attempts to continue procurement or proliferation? If the P5+1 and Iran reach a final agreement, what challenges will remain the most pressing after the ink dries? And, what does Congress need to know in order to play its important role in U.S. policy on Iran?

David Albright, a physicist, is founder and President of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) in Washington, D.C. He has written numerous assessments on secret nuclear weapons programs throughout the world. He and ISIS have closely tracked the Iranian nuclear program for many years, deriving technical analysis and policy solutions for resolving the crisis. Albright has testified numerous times on nuclear issues before the U.S. Congress. He is regularly called on to train decision-makers in the United States and abroad in technical matters and non-proliferation policy making. The media frequently cite Albright, and he appears often on television and radio. Albright has co-authored four books, including 2010’s Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America’s Enemies, listed by The Atlantic as one of the best foreign affairs books of 2010.

Olli Heinonen served 27 years at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Heinonen was the Deputy Director General of the IAEA, and head of its Department of Safeguards. Prior to that, he was director at the Agency’s various operational divisions, and an inspector including at the IAEA’s overseas office in Tokyo, Japan. Heinonen led teams of international investigators to examine nuclear programs of concern around the world and inspected nuclear facilities in South Africa, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, seeking to ensure that nuclear materials were not diverted for military purposes. He led the Agency’s efforts to identify and dismantle nuclear proliferation networks, including the one led by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, and he oversaw its efforts to monitor and contain Iran’s nuclear program. Heinonen is now a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is the author of several articles, chapters of books, books, and other publications ranging from the IAEA and nuclear non-proliferation issues to regional nuclear developments. His writings and interviews have been published in various newspapers and magazines including: Foreign Policy, The Wall Street Journal, Arms Control Today, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, and TIME.

Orde Kittrie is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a tenured Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Kittrie has testified on nonproliferation issues before Congress and served as one of fourteen members of a special National Academies of Science committee created by Congress to make recommendations on how to improve U.S. programs to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Kittrie also served for eleven years at the United States Department of State. As the State Department’s lead attorney for nuclear affairs, Kittrie participated in negotiating five U.S.-Russia nuclear nonproliferation agreements over the course of sixteen trips to Moscow, as well as a UN agreement to combat nuclear terrorism. He also served for two years as foreign affairs legislative assistant to a Member of Congress.

Mark Dubowitz is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan policy institute, where he leads projects on Iran, sanctions, nonproliferation, and countering electronic repression. Dubowitz is an expert on sanctions and has testified before Congress and advised the U.S. administration, Congress, and numerous foreign governments on Iran sanctions issues. He is the co-author of five confidential reports on economic sanctions against Iran provided by FDD to the U.S. government and four public reports. Dubowitz is also a co-chair of the Project on U.S. Middle East Nonproliferation Strategy, a nonpartisan project co-chaired by five nonproliferation and sanctions experts, which produced a 2013 report on U.S. Nonproliferation Strategy for the Changing Middle East. Dubowitz is a senior research fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto where he teaches a graduate course and conducts research on international negotiations, economic sanctions, and Iran’s nuclear program.