IAEA Board of Governors passes resolution against Iran, diplomats say

US CONCERNS

The resolution called on Iran to implement a vaguely worded March 2023 joint statement that the IAEA took to be a sweeping pledge of cooperation, including monitoring and the installation of surveillance cameras.

Iran is now enriching uranium to up to 60 per cent purity, close to the 90 per cent of weapons-grade, and has enough material enriched to that level, if enriched further, for three nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick.

Western powers say there is no credible civilian reason for that. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful but officials have recently said it could change its “nuclear doctrine” if it is attacked or its existence threatened by arch-foe Israel. That has prompted alarm at the IAEA and in Western capitals.

“Iran, a country with a past nuclear weapons program and whose enrichment program started in secret, is amassing a growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and now boasts of being on the precipice of nuclear weapons capability,” the United States said in a statement to the Board of Governors.

The US statement also echoed concerns Washington expressed to its European allies before it finally backed the resolution.

“Iran has repeatedly responded to the resolutions adopted by this Board in recent years with escalation instead of cooperation, including by producing 60 per cent enriched uranium at its heavily fortified, underground facility at Fordow,” it said.