IAEA says Iran not complying with nuclear obligations – DW – 06/12/2025
The UN nuclear watchdog has slammed Iran for failing to comply with its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in two decades.
The UN nuclear watchdog IAEA has condemned Iran for being in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost two decades, diplomatic sources have said.
The agency's 35-nation board of governors passed a resolution to that effect on Thursday, they said.
They said the motion, drafted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany, was carried by 19 votes in favor. Russia, China and Burkina Faso opposed the motion, 11 abstained and two nations of the 35 did not vote.
Iran responded defiantly to the resolution by announcing it would open a new enrichment site and upgrade centrifuges at the Fordow nuclear facility.
Restored UN sanctions on Tehran possible
The IAEA board "Finds that Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency," the resolution text, seen by Reuters news agency, said.
Thursday's move could lead to further tensions between the West and Iran over its nuclear program and pave the way for United Nations sanctions on Tehran to be restored later this year.
Undeclared nuclear materials
The resolution by the IAEA comes after Iran has failed to give the agency credible explanations for the presence of uranium traces at undeclared sites in the country.
The report by the agency at the end of May found that three of the four locations "were part of an undeclared structured nuclear program carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material."
US intelligence services and the IAEA have suspected for some time that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program it halted in 2003.
Iran has gradually been abandoning the commitments it made under the nuclear deal it agreed with world powers in 2015.
That deal, which collapsed after the US withdrew from it in 2018 during US President Donald Trump's first term, lifted some sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Tehran's nuclear program.
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