The United States and Britain, France and Germany are pushing other members of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's board to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years, diplomats said. The push, expected as a resolution next week, follows Iran's refusal to let IAEA inspectors back into sites bombed in February and verify its enriched uranium stocks.
Board push follows a year of standoffs
The U.S. and its allies are pressing other countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board to pass a resolution next week reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council, diplomats said on Friday. It would be the first such referral in 20 years.
A draft text has not yet been formally submitted to the board, and negotiations between countries over the exact wording are ongoing. Diplomats said a draft is usually submitted formally early in the week of a board meeting.
If passed, the resolution would follow one adopted on June 12 of last year declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for not fully cooperating with an investigation into uranium traces found at undeclared sites. The board has since passed two further resolutions demanding Iran declare its enriched uranium stocks and grant the IAEA full access to verify them.
Inspectors still barred from bombed sites
The U.S. launched an air war against Tehran on February 28, destroying or badly damaging Iran's uranium-enrichment facilities together with Israel. Iran has not let IAEA inspectors return to the bombed sites since then, nor verify what remains of its enriched uranium stocks.
The IAEA believes well over 200 kg of highly enriched uranium survived the bombardments and is held in a tunnel complex at Isfahan and at the Natanz facility. Some of that material was enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
As a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to develop nuclear technology, including enrichment, for peaceful purposes, and it says it would never produce a nuclear weapon. It is, however, the only country to enrich to 60% purity without building a bomb. According to Reuters, the amount Iran has enriched to that level is "a matter of serious concern" to the IAEA.
A board resolution reporting Iran to the Security Council would mark the culmination of the standoff over IAEA access to the bombed sites.
Source: Investing.com
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