Iran Speeds Up Nuclear Program After IAEA Censure

Of 35 members states on the board, 30 voted in favor of the resolution sponsored by the ‘E3’ (France, Germany, the United Kingdom) and the United States. India, Libya and Pakistan abstained, while Russia and China voted against.

The resolution called on Iran to engage with the IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, without delay and expressed “profound concern” at Iran’s failure to satisfy the agency over traces of uranium found at three undeclared sites and highlighted last week in a report from IAEA director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi.

The resolution comes with year-long talks paused since March between Iran and six world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), and with continuing preparations in Israel for an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iran: ‘Meaningless and disappointing’

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s IAEA ambassador, tweeted that the resolution was “highly questionable under the circumstances” and that countries making up more than half the world’s population had not supported it. Russia had opposed the move, which Moscow argues undermines efforts to salvage the JCPOA.

Fars News agency reported Iran's acting IAEA ambassador, Mohammad-Reza Ghaebi, condemning the resolution and saying Iran would respond appropriately. Ghaebi said that given “exemplary cooperation” between Iran and the agency, this resolution was “meaningless and disappointing.”

Earlier in the day, apparently in response to developments at the IAEA, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced it was turning off two IAEA monitoring systems and associated cameras at two unspecified nuclear sites, which it said were not required by Iran’s commitments as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT).

‘Watered-down’

Critics of the JCPOA in the United States are unlikely to be satisfied that their campaign against the agreement, which the administration of President Joe Biden and the E3 say they want to revive, has yet succeeded. Gabriel Noronha, special advisor on Iran in the administration of President Donald Trump, tweeted that the resolution was “watered-down.”

Kelsey Davenport, director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association, tweeted support for the resolution, which she suggested was a “necessary signal to Iran that there are consequences for not cooperating with the IAEA.” But she also argued it should “motivate the US & E3 to get back to the drawing board to find a solution to the impasse over talks to restore the JCPOA.”

The statement, released by the press office of the EU delegation to United Nations bodies in Vienna Wednesday afternoon, expressed support for a resolution critical of Iran to be moved by France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The EU called for Iran to “co-operate immediately and in full with the IAEA in order for the Agency to be in a position to provide the required assurances that Iran’s nuclear programme [sic] is exclusively peaceful” and praised the “tireless efforts” of IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi to “pursue constructive engagement.”

The resolution is set to criticize Iran over what Grossi has said is its failure to adequately explain uranium traces found at three sites in Iran. To pass it needs a simple majority of the 35 states on the IAEA governing board.But China and Russia have both opposed the move on grounds it could undermine negotiations between Iran and six world powers to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Neither it is clear what practical effect the resolution passing might have. Iran Wednesday announced it was turning off two IAEA camera systems at unspecified nuclear sites but stressed it would continue to fulfil obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT).

The US and its European allies, the United Kingdom, France and Germany are pushing for a resolution criticizing Iran’s lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the watchdog's board.

"If accurate, reports that Iran plans to reduce transparency in response to this resolution are extremely regrettable and counterproductive to the diplomatic outcome we seek," a US statement to a meeting of the 35-nation Board of Governors said ahead of a vote on the U.S.-backed draft resolution. "We do not seek escalation (with Iran)," the statement added.

Earlier in the day the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran announced that it has decided to disconnect two IAEA monitoring devices, measuring uranium enrichment, without naming the location.

The equipment in question, Iran said, are not related to IAEA monitoring according to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but are part of its “voluntary cooperation” under the Additional Protocol.

The resolution is tabled by the West after IAEA director Rafael Grossi issued a report to the board on Monday criticizing Iran for lack of cooperation in an investigation of its past secret nuclear activities.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said Wednesday it would cut off several cameras and other monitoring equipment, leaving only that required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and removing ones installed as part of the Additional Protocol.

A statement from the AEOI argued that Iran’s acceptance of monitoring based on the Additional Protocol was ‘voluntary’ and designed to show goodwill towards the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The IAEA board of governors, meeting this week in Vienna, is due to consider a resolution from the ‘E3’ (France, Germany, the United Kingdom) and the United States criticizing what agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi told the board Monday was Iran’s failure to answer questions over unexplained uranium traces found by IAEA inspectors in Iran.

The AEOI statement implicitly linked its statement to developments at the IAEA.

“The Islamic Republic until now has maintained extensive cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but the agency unfortunately without considering that this cooperation was due to Iran’s goodwill, not only has not been appreciative, but even has interpreted it as Iran’s duty,” the AEOI said. “For this reason it was decided to disconnect Additional Protocol OLEM [on-line enrichment monitors] and ‘flow meter’ instruments, issuing the order to officials.”

Tensions in Vienna

Iran’s announcement said that monitoring cameras required under the NPT – constituting 80 percent of IAEA equipment in Iran – would continue to operate, but the timing of its move will raise tensions in Vienna, where China and Russia have criticized the US-E3 resolution for undermining efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Iran in 2019, the year after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA, began to exceed the deal’s limits on its nuclear program, and has now accumulated enough, or nearly enough, highly-enriched uranium for a weapon, an aim Iran denies.

Tehran has also since 2021 reduced the access of IAEA inspectors, leading Grossi to argue the agency’s ability to monitor the nuclear program is seriously restricted. Grossi reached a temporary arrangement in February 2021, later extended, that Iran would keep data from certain cameras, including in plants manufacturing centrifuges used to enrich uranium, but this came under increasing strain as negotiators from the E3, China, Russia, Iran and the US struggled in Vienna to reach agreement over reviving the JCPOA.

An E3 statement issued Tuesday warned that with already restricted IAEA access“neither the Agency, nor the international community, know how many centrifuges Iran has in its inventory, how many were built, and where they may be located, precisely at the point it is expanding its programme [sic] and its component manufacturing and centrifuge assembling capabilities.”

The Europeans stressed that the IAEA had judged its verification work had been “seriously affected” and that even if the JCPOA were revived, the agency might not “be able to restore the continuity of knowledge…given the time that has now elapsed…”

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (the E3) were addressing this week’s quarterly board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna, where the three European states plan along with the United States to introduce a resolution critical of Iran focused on its alleged lack of cooperation with the agency.

Their statement said Iran’s nuclear progress “is threatening international security and risks undermining the global nonproliferation regime,” highlighting Tehran’s accumulation of highly-enriched enriched uranium “fueling distrust as to Iran’s intentions.”

IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi told the board Monday he was unable to certify the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program given what he regards as unsatisfactory answers to agency questions over uranium traces found at three sites linked to work carried out before 2003.

The agency has also this week reported continuing advances in Iran’s atomic program, particularly in stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium that are near the volume needed for a crude weapon.

European priority

The E3 expressed a priority of restoring the 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which the United States left in 2018, so prompting Iran to begin by 2019 to exceed the limits imposed by the JCPOA on its nuclear program.

The E3 statement put responsibility for failure of year-long Vienna talks to restore the JCPOA solely at Iran’s door, saying that a deal to revive the 2015 agreement was “on the table” when “we left Vienna three months ago.”

But Iran has argued that all sanctions introduced by President Donald Trump under ‘maximum pressure’ – including the 2019 executive order listing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ – should be removed as incompatible with the JCPOA.

While the E3 was critical of Trump’s unilateral decision in 2018 to leave the JCPOA, and established an ineffective special mechanism to continue trade with Iran, its position has edged closer to the Biden administration as it has maintained Trump’s sanction.

But this in turn has undermined the multilateral basis of the JCPOA, which was endorsed in 2015 by all powers at the United Nations Security Council, including the US. Russia and China both held the US responsible for abrogating the JCPOA, and now say that raising a resolution against Iran at the IAEA board over its pre-2003 nuclear work could undermine efforts to restore the 2015 agreement.

‘Get out of nuclear jail free card’

Iran insists it has answered IAEA questions over its past nuclear work. The official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Wednesday Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, that Tehran had no hidden nuclear activities and that events at the IAEA, referring to the resolution, were part of ‘maximum pressure.’

Eslami suggested that Iran’s differences were not so much with the US but with Israel, which recently carried out military exercises simulating an attack on Iran and which is widely believed to have killed Iranian nuclear scientists and sabotaged Iran’s nuclear sites.

Like the E3, the Biden administration stresses its commitment to restoring JCPOA. Ned Price, the US State Department Spokesman, said Monday the JCPOA had put the Iranian nuclear program in a “confined box.”

Price said Trump had given Tehran “a get out of nuclear jail free card” that had led to development in Iran’s atomic program that “would have been prohibited under the JCPOA.. [with its] stringent verification and monitoring regime.” Challenged by a reporter if Iran had paid no price, the spokesman backtracked calling his comment “ maybe a bit too flip.”