Shafaqna Pakistan: The United States, Britain, France and Germany are seeking a resolution at next week’s meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog’s board that would refer Iran to the UN Security Council for the first time in two decades, according to diplomats and a draft text reviewed by Reuters.
The proposed resolution follows a measure adopted on June 12 last year that found Iran in breach of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations over its failure to fully cooperate with an investigation into uranium traces discovered at undeclared sites.
Israel began strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities the following day, with the United States later joining the attacks. Iran’s uranium-enrichment facilities were subsequently destroyed or severely damaged.
Iran had not let the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors return to the bombed sites since then or verify what remains of its stocks of enriched uranium, some of which was enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
A resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation board reporting Iran to the Security Council would also be the culmination of a standoff over IAEA access to those sites, since the board had passed two resolutions in the past year demanding Iran declare its enriched uranium stocks and grant the IAEA full access to verify them.
“(The board) requests the (IAEA) Director General to transmit this resolution and the previously adopted resolutions … to all Members of the Agency and to the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations,” said the latest resolution draft seen by Reuters.
It also “reiterates its call upon Iran to urgently remedy its non-compliance with its Safeguards Agreement by taking all steps deemed necessary by the Agency and the Board, so that the Director General can provide the necessary assurances regarding the correctness and completeness of Iran’s declarations”.
The draft had not yet been formally submitted to the board, and negotiations over the exact wording were ongoing, diplomats said. Whenever the four powers have submitted a draft resolution on Iran in recent years, it has passed.
Concrete action by the Security Council against Iran was unlikely since Tehran’s allies Russia and China were permanent, veto-wielding members.
Source: Express Tribune
