Photographer: Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
The US is asking other countries to support a formal censorship from Iran over its accelerated nuclear activities, a sign that the Biden government wants to increase the diplomatic heat on Tehran, as it looks like it wants to restore a 2015 crumbling agreement.
The The board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency will meet next week in Vienna to discuss the the latest reports that Iran has intensified nuclear fuel production, while the investigation into the presence of uranium particles in black spots has been suspended.
U.S. diplomats on Thursday released a document citing Washington’s grievances and ordered Iran to cooperate fully with inspectors. The proposed resolution would “express strong concern about the findings of the IAEA” and “the deep concern of the Council regarding Iran’s cooperation”, reads the three-page document seen by Bloomberg.
A State Department spokesman declined to comment. Two European officials confirmed that they had received the document and said they were studying its contents.
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Next week’s meeting could be an important early test for the new US government’s approach to Iran. The document reiterates that ‘President Biden has made it clear that if the US returns to the full implementation of its JCPOA commitments, the US is prepared to do the same’, with an acronym for the 2015 agreement collapsing anything but has come under the weight of US sanctions.
Iran has violated key restrictions on uranium enrichment and production capacity since the US under former President Donald Trump left the nuclear deal in May 2018 and reintroduced economic fines. Each government now demands that the other take the first step to restore the treaty.
The IAEA reported on Tuesday that Iran’s supply of uranium has been enriched closer to the levels needed for a weapon for the first time in eight years. It also said that Iranian statements about decades-old traces of uranium found at various sites were inadequate. Tehran has always maintained that it never sought a bomb.
The proposed censorship suggests that the US is increasing the pressure. “The world has long known that Iran has pursued nuclear weapons in the past,” according to the document. “We also know that Iran has kept a large collection of records from its previous nuclear weapons program. Iran must now fully cooperate with the IAEA so that we can have the assurance that the legacy of Iran’s previous nuclear weapons work does not include unprecedented nuclear material in Iran today. ”
A proposal that Iran could provide incomplete information could have potentially serious consequences, including another reference to the United Nations Security Council.
The IAEA then erupted the last time the US made an attempt to condemn Iran, with China doing so. seen as American bullying under Trump.
While that June criterion eventually passed, it badly divided the body responsible for accounting for the gram levels of nuclear material worldwide. Russia, India, Pakistan and South Africa were among the countries that joined China to either oppose the measure or abstain.