IAEA: Iran was not complying with its nuclear obligations

The UN nuclear watchdog’s board of governors (IAEA) on Thursday adopted a resolution condemning Iran’s non-compliance with its obligations for the first time in 20 years, potentially paving the way for the reimposition of United Nations sanctions on Tehran. Iran hit back immediately, saying it would establish a new enrichment facility in a secure location.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors formally found that Iran was not complying with its nuclear obligations, a move that could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort to restore sanctions on Tehran later this year.

Iran reacted immediately, saying it would establish a new enrichment facility in a secure location and that other measures are also being planned.

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.

Nineteen countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board, which represents the agency’s member nations, voted for the resolution, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-doors vote.

Russia, China and Burkina Faso opposed it, 11 abstained and two did not vote.

In the draft resolution seen by The Associated Press, the board of governors renews a call on Iran to provide answers “without delay” in a long-running investigation into uranium traces found at several locations that Tehran has failed to declare as nuclear sites.

Western officials suspect that the uranium traces could provide further evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003.

The resolution was put forward by France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.

The three European nations have repeatedly threatened in the past to reinstate, or snapback, sanctions that have been lifted under the original 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Iran does not provide technically credible answers to the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s questions.

Speaking to Iranian state television after the vote, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said that his agency immediately informed the IAEA of “specific and effective” actions Tehran would take.

“One is the launch of a third secure site” for enrichment, spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. He did not elaborate on the location, but the organisation’s chief Mohammad Eslami later described the site as already built, prepared, and located in a secure and invulnerable place.

Iran has two underground sites at Fordo and Natanz and has been building tunnels in the mountains near Natanz since suspected Israeli sabotage attacks targeted that facility.

The other step would be replacing old centrifuges for advanced ones at Fordo. The implication of this is that our production of enriched materials will significantly increase, Kamalvandi said.

According to the draft resolution, 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.

Under those obligations, which are part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is legally bound to declare all nuclear material and activities and allow IAEA inspectors to verify that none of it is being diverted from peaceful uses.

The draft resolution also finds that the IAEA’s inability … to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Security Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.