*U.S. Warns Of Dire Consequence, Reduces Non-Essential Staff In Iraq
THE United Nations’ (UN) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has slammed Iran for failing to comply with its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in two decades.
According to AFP, the UN nuclear watchdog condemned Iran for being in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost two decades, diplomatic sources have said.
The agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution to that effect on Thursday, June 12, in a motion drafted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany, and carried by 19 votes in favour, with Russia, China and Burkina Faso opposing the motion, and 11 abstaining, while two nations of the 35 did not vote, the sources said.
Iran responded defiantly to the resolution by announcing it would open a new enrichment site and upgrade centrifuges at the Fordow nuclear facility.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice, but to respond to this political resolution,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said in a joint statement.
The IAEA Board “Finds that Iran’s many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran … constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency,” the resolution text, seen by Reuters news agency, said.
Thursday’s move could lead to further tensions between the West and Iran over its nuclear programme and pave the way for UN sanctions on Tehran to be restored later this year.
The resolution by the IAEA comes after Iran failed to give the agency credible explanations for the presence of uranium traces at undeclared sites in the country.
The report by the agency at the end of May found that three of the four locations “were part of an undeclared structured nuclear program carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material.”
United States (US) intelligence services and the IAEA have suspected for some time that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons programme it halted in 2003.
Iran has gradually been abandoning the commitments it made under the nuclear deal it agreed with world powers in 2015, which collapsed after the US withdrew from it in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term, and lifted some sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The IAEA resolution comes as tensions in the region have been rising. The US State Department announced on Wednesday, June 11, that it was pulling out people whom it considered non-essential to its operations in the Middle East.
Staff reductions are being carried out at the US Embassy and there are reports that personnel are also being moved from Kuwait and Bahrain over security concerns
Trump has also warned that Israel or the US could carry out airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities if ongoing US-Iran negotiations failed.
Iran, in its turn, has responded with threats to hit US bases in the region if the US takes military action.
Israel, Iran’s regional archenemy, has meanwhile said the world must respond “decisively” to Iran’s non-compliance with its nuclear obligations.
