The United States, France, Britain and Germany are pushing for the UN nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors to rebuke Iran for failing to answer longstanding questions on uranium traces at undeclared sites, a draft resolution seen by Reuters showed.
The move is likely to anger Iran, which generally bristles at such resolutions, and that in turn could damage the prospects of rescuing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Indirect talks on that between Iran and the United States are already stalled.
Western powers have held off submitting a draft resolution to previous quarterly meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors over this issue precisely because it risked derailing those talks, which have not been held since March.
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The issue has, however, come to a head since the IAEA told member states this week that Iran had not given it credible answers on the particles found at three mainly old but undeclared sites despite both sides agreeing in March to revive their discussions and try to resolve the open issues by now.
The IAEA Board “calls upon Iran to act on an urgent basis to fulfil its legal obligations and take up immediately the (IAEA) Director General’s offer of further engagement to clarify and resolve all outstanding safeguards issues,” the draft text sent to IAEA member states and seen by Reuters on Wednesday said.
The text, which was dated Tuesday, did not say which countries had drafted it. Two diplomats said it was by the United States and the so-called E3.
The draft must still formally be submitted to next week’s meeting and then be either adopted unopposed or put to a vote.
The Board’s meeting starts on Monday and the draft’s wording is likely to keep being negotiated among Board members and adjusted until it is submitted.
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