IAEA Board Submits to U.S. Despite Iran’s Warning

Date: 01 March 2021 - 22:01

News ID: ۸۸۱۳۹

VIENNA (Dispatches) -- Britain, France and Germany were pressing ahead Monday with a U.S.-backed plan for a resolution by the UN nuclear agency’s board criticizing Iran for curbing cooperation with the agency, despite Russian and Iranian warnings of serious consequences.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors is holding a quarterly meeting this week against the backdrop of faltering efforts to revive Iran’s nuclear deal with major powers now that U.S. President Joe Biden is in office.
Iran has recently scaled down its compliance with the 2015 deal in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the deal in 2018 and the reimposition of U.S. sanctions that had been lifted under it.
The latest remedial measure was taken last week, ending extra inspection and monitoring measures introduced by the deal, including the permit voluntarily given to the IAEA to carry out snap inspections at Iranian facilities.
The three European powers, all parties to the 2015 deal, circulated a draft resolution for the Vienna meeting voicing "serious concern” at Iran’s reduced cooperation and urging Iran to reverse its steps.
The draft, sent to IAEA board members and obtained by Reuters, also expressed "deep concern” at Iran’s alled failure to explain uranium particles found at three old sites, including two that the IAEA first reported on last week.
Iran has bristled at the prospect of the resolution, threatening to cancel a deal struck a week ago with the IAEA to temporarily continue many of the monitoring measures it had decided to end - a black-box-type arrangement valid for up to three months.
"We have provided the necessary explanations about these conditions to all members of the Board of Governors. We hope that reason will prevail, and if that does not happen, we have options to take,” Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif said on Monday.
Zarif said the anti-Iran resolution would make a mess of the status quo with regard to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – a landmark nuclear agreement Iran signed with the U.S., Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain.
"The Europeans triggered a wrong move with the backing of the U.S. at the IAEA Board of Governors. We think the move will make a mess of the situation,” Zarif said.
It was unclear how many countries would support a resolution. In a position paper before Iran’s announcement, Russia warned that a resolution could hurt efforts to revive the nuclear deal and that it would oppose it.
"Adoption of the resolution will not help the political process of returning to the normal comprehensive implementation of the JCPOA,” Russia’s note to member states said.
"On the contrary it will hugely complicate those efforts undermining the prospects for the restoration of the JCPOA and for normal cooperation between Iran and the Agency.”
Asked about the tussle, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said he did not want anything to jeopardize his inspectors’ work in the Islamic Republic.
What I hope is that the work of the agency will be preserved. This is essential,” he told a news conference.
"The inspection work of the IAEA should not be put in the middle of a negotiating table as a bargaining chip.”