France, Germany, the UK and the US have submitted a motion to the board of the UN nuclear watchdog to censure Iran over its lack of cooperation with the agency, two diplomats said on Tuesday.
The resolution calling on Iran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came after a report by the agency concluded there had been “no progress” in a long-standing probe into undeclared nuclear material in Iran.
Traces of undeclared uranium of human-made origin had been discovered at three Iranian sites in the past. The issue has been a point of contention during on-off talks between Tehran and world powers to revive a 2015 landmark deal that sought to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
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The “resolution has been submitted tonight,” a European diplomat said.
A second diplomat confirmed the move.
The draft text seen by Agence France-Presse underscored that it was “essential and urgent” for Iran to “act to fulfil its legal obligations.”
A similar resolution criticizing Iran was adopted at the IAEA’s June meeting, with only China and Russia voting against it.
At the time, Tehran denounced the motion as “political” and responded to it by removing surveillance cameras and other equipment from its nuclear facilities. The text must be discussed and voted on during this week’s quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors that was to start yesterday. A simple majority of board members is sufficient to pass the resolution.
A visit by an IAEA delegation in Tehran has been scheduled for the end of the month in an attempt to make progress on the investigation.
Tehran, which maintains that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful, has been pressing the UN nuclear watchdog to drop the probe to revive the 2015 deal on its nuclear program with world powers, but the agency has kept demanding “technically credible explanations” for the traces, including “access to locations and material,” as well as the collection of samples.
Talks have been under way since April last year to revive the nuclear deal, which started to unravel when the US withdrew from it in 2018.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken late last month reiterated that he saw little scope to restore the deal, pointing to the clerical leadership’s conditions, as major protests roil the country.
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