Iran on Friday postponed crucial UN inspections of its nuclear sites for what it called holiday reasons and dismissed charges by some Western diplomats that it may be hiding a weapons programme.
The postponement occurred at the end of a week of negotiations at the UN nuclear watchdog on a resolution that Washington hopes will keep the door open for a report to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions against Iran.
"The Iranians have postponed the inspections until the second half of April, possibly the end of April," a diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"If they really have nothing to hide, it's fully against their interests [to delay] because people who accuse them of having a weapons programme are getting a lot of ammunition," the diplomat said.
Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Pirooz Hosseini, said the only reason for the postponement was Iran's New Year's holiday which begins next week.
"This is just purely a vacation issue, a holiday issue," he said. "That was the main reason, the only reason."
The US suspects Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons and accuses it of systematically hiding evidence of its research and development. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only and has accepted snap inspections.
A Western diplomat on the IAEA's board of governors said a number of countries had expected Iran to begin limiting cooperation with the IAEA because it had something to hide.
"This could be it," the diplomat said.
An IAEA spokeswoman declined to comment on the postponement.
The US has said it is confident the IAEA will warn Tehran it may face sanctions within months and wants the watchdog to get tough if Tehran fails to fully comply by June.
In backroom meetings at the IAEA, Canadian, Australian and European diplomats negotiated with counterparts from Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries over a resolution on Iran.
Diplomats said there was strong resistance from NAM countries, as well as from the politically powerful Russians and Chinese, to an Australian-Canadian draft that suggests a military link to Iran's atomic programme.
The US and the European Union's "Big Three," France, Britain and Germany, struck a tentative deal this week on the draft.
NAM states have 13 out of 35 seats on the IAEA board that usually seeks to adopt resolutions by consensus.
The draft "deplores" omissions IAEA inspectors uncovered in an Iranian declaration last October that Tehran billed at the time as a full disclosure of its nuclear activities.
These included its failure to mention advanced designs for centrifuges capable of enriching uranium for use in nuclear power plants or, potentially, in a weapon.
NAM countries have proposed a series of amendments to tone down the draft resolution, and say the word "deplores" must be changed to "strongly regrets" or something else.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS