Iran SCRAPS co-operation with nuclear watchdog - banning inspectors from enrichment facilities as world fears regime could step up bomb program in wake of US strikes

Daily Mail​

5 hours ago

Iranian lawmakers have voted in favour of suspending cooperation with the United Nations ' nuclear watchdog after US and Israeli warplanes battered nuclear facilities across the country over 12 days of strikes.
'The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction,' Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.
He went on to announce that 'the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend its cooperation with the IAEA until the security of the nuclear facilities is guaranteed.'
The bill is said to be subject to approval from the Supreme National Security Council. If it is passed, Tehran will bar IAEA inspectors from carrying out inspections at any nuclear sites.
US President Donald Trump insists that bunker-busting bombs and tomahawk missiles 'totally obliterated' Iran 's nuclear facilities and erased the Islamic Republic's chances of building a bomb.
But despite his triumphant bluster, Iran still likely boasts significant stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and could well have other facilities lying in wait to reach purity levels required to fashion nuclear warheads.
IAEA Rafael Grossi sent a letter to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to propose a meeting and urge the Islamic Republic to cooperate.
'Resuming cooperation with the IAEA is key to a successful diplomatic agreement to finally resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear activities,' Grossi said in a statement.
'I've written to Foreign Minister Araghchi stressing the importance of us working together and proposing to meet soon.'
He said IAEA inspectors have remained in Iran and are ready to start working again.
'As I have repeatedly stated – before and during the conflict – nuclear facilities should never be attacked due to the very real risk of a serious radiological accident,' Grossi said.
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced that 'the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend its cooperation with the IAEA until the security of the nuclear facilities is guaranteed.'
Voting to suspend cooperation with the IAEA would be a violation of Iran's responsibilities as part of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
But there are fears Tehran may seek to pull out of the agreement in light of the US and Israeli strikes.
'The Non-Proliferation Treaty allows member states to withdraw (with a three month notice period) 'if it decides that extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this treaty, have jeopardised the supreme interests of its country',' said Darya Dolzikova, Senior Research Fellow for Proliferation and Nuclear Policy at the RUSI think tank.
'The events of the last week could arguably give Tehran the justification it needs to that end. A withdrawal from the NPT would likely see the international community lose all visibility of the Iranian nuclear programme and could - long-term - become a catalyst for broader proliferation in the region.'
In May, the IAEA, reported that Iran had accumulated more than 400 kilograms (900 lbs) of uranium enriched to 60%.
This is already enough to create an atomic weapon like those that laid waste to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Such bombs are too heavy and cumbersome for Iran to deploy effectively. But achieving the 90% enrichment required to produce modern nuclear devices small and light enough to mount to any one of Tehran's vast array of missiles could take mere weeks.
As far as anyone knows, that HEU is still safely squirrelled away, safe from American and Israeli bombs - not to mention tonnes more uranium enriched to levels below 60%, but still far in advance of the 3-5% required for civilian energy use.
At present, there is no telling whether Trump's 'Operation Midnight Hammer' was as effective as the President claims - particularly at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, where enrichment centrifuges are hidden beneath 90 metres of rock and concrete.
There are fears that Tehran may well have several other secret facilities that remain unknown to Israel 's Mossad and the CIA.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, claims he moved the country's uranium stockpile to a secret location - a belief echoed by Israeli intelligence officials.
IAEA chief Grossi told the New York Times his team of UN inspectors had seen the uranium about a week before Israel began its attacks.
HEU is stable and dense, meaning it can be easily dispersed and stored to avoid detection.
Grossi said the stockpile seen by IAEA inspectors was stored in special casks small enough to fit in the trunks of about 10 cars. He also said he believed the material had been moved.
Satellite images published by US defence contractor Maxar Technologies showed 16 trucks leaving Iran's Fordow nuclear facility on June 19, three days before Operation Midnight Hammer.
Further images reveal a flurry of activity prior to the trucks' departure involving bulldozers and security convoys that were likely reinforcing and sealing Fordow's entrances and evacuating sensitive documents.
Now, no one outside of Iran knows exactly where its HEU stockpile is located, and Tehran's options are endless.
The canisters could be stored in Iran's network of tunnels and caves, brought to Iranian Revolutionary Guard bases, or concealed at civilian facilities such as universities and research centres or even telecoms.
They could even be kept on the move in trucks.
Analysts largely agree that no amount of bombing could totally eradicate Iran's nuclear programme, and have pointed out that the American and Israeli campaign could have the opposite effect.
Dr Andreas Krieg, an expert in Middle East security and senior lecturer at King's College London's School of Security Studies, told MailOnline: 'Going after Iran's nuclear programme could reinforce Tehran's belief that a nuclear deterrent is not only justified but essential for regime survival'.
'Rather than halting Iran's nuclear trajectory, the strikes may serve as a vindication of the logic that drives Iran's long-term nuclear ambition - deterrence through capability,' he said.
Dr Andreas Boehm, international law expert at the University of St. Gallen, was even more forthright.
'After the experiences of Ukraine, Libya and now Iran on the one hand, and North Korea on the other, there can be no other conclusion than that only the possession of nuclear weapons offers protection against attack,' he said.
'For this or any subsequent Iranian regime, the path of negotiation is no longer an option. It will now work even more resolutely towards acquiring a nuclear bomb.'
Some Western leaders appear to share this view. French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters today he felt there was an 'increased' risk that Iran would attempt to enrich uranium secretly in the wake of US-Israeli attacks.