{"id":66524,"date":"2024-06-05T20:55:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T20:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/05\/u-n-nuclear-watchdog-censures-iran-and-demands-access-for-inspectors\/"},"modified":"2024-06-05T20:55:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T20:55:11","slug":"u-n-nuclear-watchdog-censures-iran-and-demands-access-for-inspectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/05\/u-n-nuclear-watchdog-censures-iran-and-demands-access-for-inspectors\/","title":{"rendered":"U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Censures Iran and Demands Access for Inspectors"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"548\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/08\/25\/world\/05iran-nuclear\/25us-israel-intel-sub-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,548&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Censures Iran and Demands Access for Inspectors\" title=\"U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Censures Iran and Demands Access for Inspectors\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The United Nations\u2019 nuclear watchdog agency on Wednesday censured Iran over its refusal to grant inspectors access to its uranium enrichment program, passing a carefully worded resolution after the United States toned it down in a bid to avoid provoking a crisis at a time in which the Middle East is already roiling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The resolution was sponsored by France, Britain and Germany in response to advances in Iran\u2019s nuclear program over the past year and the Iranian\u2019s government&#8217;s refusal to cooperate with the agency. By most estimates Tehran is now just days or weeks away from being able to produce bomb-grade fuel for roughly three nuclear weapons, though actually fashioning them into warheads could take a year or more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The resolution passed in a vote of the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations body, with 20 votes in favor, 12 abstentions and two against. The no votes were cast by Russia and China. Russia has close security ties to Iran and purchases Iranian drones for the war in Ukraine. China is a close economic ally helping Iran evade sanctions by purchasing its oil at a discounted rate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nine years ago, when Iran agreed to sharp limits on its nuclear program in a deal reached with the Obama administration and European nations, both Russia and China joined the effort to contain Tehran\u2019s nuclear capabilities. The vote in Vienna on Wednesday made clear how dramatically their position has shifted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While I.A.E.A. censure resolutions are not legally binding, they do carry political weight. In November 2022, the board passed a similar resolution that was drafted by the same three European countries, demanding that Iran cooperate with investigations into uranium traces found at suspected former nuclear sites. Iran never complied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Biden administration, though, was clearly concerned about avoiding a resolution that was so sharply worded that it could set off a backlash in Tehran. American officials said that they shared the Europeans\u2019 concern, but that they did not want to back an unenforceable resolution that might prompt Iran to escalate its nuclear program at a time it is seeking to defuse tensions in the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the end, after some modifications of the wording, the United States voted for the resolution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and that it is not pursuing a bomb. But in recent months, several senior officials have said publicly that Iran could revise its nuclear doctrine if it faced an existential threat from other nuclear countries, namely Israel and the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group, said that as a matter of principle the resolution adopted on Wednesday was merited, given the longstanding concerns about Iran\u2019s lack of cooperation with the U.N. agency, but that it might backfire. \u201cPrecedent suggests that Tehran is more likely than not to double down on the very actions that are being condemned,\u201d Mr. Vaez said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even before the votes were cast, Iran was signaling its displeasure. On Tuesday, the president of Iran\u2019s Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, called the resolution \u201canti-Iranian\u201d and politically motivated and pledged immediate retaliation, according to the Iranian media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was not immediately clear what steps Iran might take, but its options include increasing still further the level of its enriched uranium, which is now at 60 percent, just short of the 90 percent that is usually considered weapons-grade fuel. That is far higher than the enrichment levels, normally around 3 percent, needed to produce fuel for nuclear power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Wednesday, Iran\u2019s interim foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, who has also served as the chief nuclear negotiator, said his government could \u201cactivate\u201d its nuclear capabilities based on its national interests, according to a video of his comments on Iranian media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The vote came only two weeks after the death of Iran\u2019s president and foreign minister in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/20\/world\/europe\/iran-crash-what-we-know.html\" title=\"\">helicopter crash<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Iran and seven allies \u2014 Russia, China, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Syria \u2014 issued a joint statement condemning the I.A.E.A. censure. They called the resolution ill-conceived and said it violated diplomatic norms, given that Iran is still mourning the deaths of its president and foreign minister. The statement said the resolution would have \u201cthe opposite effect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The three-page resolution lays out a long list of concerns about the Iranian nuclear program, particularly the unanswered questions about why traces of uranium were found in two locations that Iran had not declared as part of its nuclear program. It calls on Iran to allow inspectors to take samples, and it asks that the government lift a prohibition on the agency\u2019s top investors examining the sites they need to see inside Iran.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When the Biden administration first came to office, it attempted to negotiate what Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken referred to as a \u201clonger and stronger\u201d version of the nuclear deal reached in 2015. The agreement fell apart after President Donald J. Trump unilaterally <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/05\/08\/world\/middleeast\/trump-iran-nuclear-deal.html\" title=\"\">exited from it<\/a> in 2018 and imposed tough economic sanctions on Iran. Experts \u2014 among them Mr. Trump\u2019s own advisers \u2014 had told him that the deal was largely working.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A new agreement never came together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/05\/world\/middleeast\/iran-nuclear-iaea.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United Nations\u2019 nuclear watchdog agency on Wednesday censured Iran over its refusal to grant inspectors access to its uranium enrichment program, passing a carefully worded resolution after the United States toned it down in a bid to avoid provoking a crisis at a time in which the Middle East is already roiling. The resolution [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/08\/25\/world\/05iran-nuclear\/25us-israel-intel-sub-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20935,20685,269,26793,19606,3101,3449,7240],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66526,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66524\/revisions\/66526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}