US urges Iran to co-operate with nuclear watchdog

Vienna — The US on Thursday threatened future action against Iran at the UN nuclear watchdog if Tehran keeps “stonewalling” the watchdog by denying it the co-operation and answers it seeks on issues including long-unexplained uranium traces.

At a quarterly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) 35-nation board of governors, Washington again told Iran to co-operate with IAEA inspectors who for years have been seeking explanations from Tehran on the origin of uranium particles at undeclared sites.

The US, however, has stopped short, for now, of seeking a resolution against Iran. Diplomats have cited the US presidential election in November as a reason Washington has been reluctant to do that. Tehran bristles at such resolutions and often responds by stepping up its activities.

“We believe we have come to the point that we and the broader international community must consider anew how to respond to Iran’s continued stonewalling,” the US said in a statement to the board meeting. “We cannot allow Iran’s current pattern of behaviour to continue.”

It is now more than a year since the last board resolution against Iran, which ordered it to co-operate urgently with the investigation into the particles. Tehran dismissed the resolution as “political” and “anti-Iranian” even though only China and Russia opposed it.

The US and its three top European allies — Britain, France and Germany — again opted against seeking a resolution against Iran at this week’s meeting but the US said that if Iran did not provide the necessary co-operation soon, it would act.

“It is our strongly held view that Iran’s continuing lack of credible co-operation provides grounds for pursuing further Board of Governors action, including the possibility of additional resolutions and consideration of whether Iran is once again in noncompliance with its safeguards obligations,” it said.

In 2018 then-president Donald Trump pulled the US out of a 2015 deal under which major powers lifted sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities. After sanctions were reimposed, Iran expanded those activities far beyond the deal’s limits.

It is now enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade and far above the deal’s cap of 3.67%. Western powers said there was no credible civil explanation for enriching to that level and the IAEA said no country had done so without producing a nuclear bomb.

Iran said its aims were entirely peaceful and it had the right to enrich to high levels for civil purposes.

The US said Iran should provide the IAEA with co-operation including access “for the purposes of collecting environmental samples ... and it must begin to do so now”.

If it did not, it would ask IAEA chief Rafael Grossi to provide a “comprehensive report” on Iran’s nuclear activities more wide-ranging than his regular quarterly ones, it said.

“Then, based on the content of that report, we will take appropriate action in support of the IAEA and the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.”

Reuters