Causes.com
| 6.11.22
UN Nuclear Watchdog Rebukes Iran for Failing to Explain Undeclared Nuclear Activities
Do you support the IAEA resolution criticizing Iran for not disclosing all of its nuclear activities?
What’s the story?
- The nuclear watchdog for the United Nations passed a resolution on Wednesday that criticized Iran for failing to explain traces of uranium found at three undeclared sites.
- An overwhelming majority of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors, which consists of 35 nations, voted to express “profound concern” about “insufficient substantive cooperation by Iran” with regard to its activities at the three undeclared sites.
- The resolution was drafted by the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany. It passed with the support of 30 nations while only two, China and Russia, opposed it. Three countries abstained, including India, Libya, and Pakistan.
- Iran responded to the resolution on Thursday by telling the IAEA it would remove 27 cameras installed to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities under the terms of the 2015 agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
- IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that while another 40 cameras that pre-date the JCPOA are expected to remain operational, Iran’s removal of the 27 post-JCPOA cameras creates a window of about three or four weeks where the IAEA will lose the ability to track some of Iran’s most significant nuclear activities. He said that failing to restore those monitoring capabilities “would be a fatal blow” to reviving the JCPOA.
- Several U.S. officials spoke anonymously to Reuters and said that the JCPOA could still be revived after that window passes, although it would require even greater disclosures and transparency by Iran. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement:
“Unfortunately, Iran’s initial response to the Board’s action has not been to address the lack of cooperation that prompted a negative report from the IAEA Director General and such strong concern in the Board, but instead to threaten further nuclear provocations and further reductions of transparency. Such steps would be counterproductive and would further complicate our efforts to return to full implementation of the JCPOA. The only outcome of such a path will be a deepening nuclear crisis and further economic and political isolation for Iran.”
Background
- Iran reached an agreement with the U.S., China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom in 2015 to limit its enrichment of nuclear materials in exchange for those nations lifting economic sanctions.
- The sanctions were reimposed by then-President Donald Trump in 2018, who pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA over Iran’s failure to indefinitely limit its nuclear program and halt its development of ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.
- In early 2020, Iran was accused by Britain, France, and Germany of breaching its commitments under the JCPOA, and the three NATO members reiterated their concern with Iran’s continued enrichment in January 2021.
- Since the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran has increased its enrichment of uranium above the 3.67% cap and has resumed enriching uranium at 20% purity.
- Uranium that has been enriched to 20% has some research uses, but can also undergo further enrichment to reach 90% purity, weapons-grade quality, in a relatively quick timeframe.
- Iran contends that its nuclear program is for civilian energy and research purposes, and has said that it won’t return to compliance with the JCPOA until the U.S. moves to “abolish all sanctions” against it. Those demands include removing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a designated foreign terrorist organization.
RELATED READING
- U.S. & Israeli Officials to Hold Strategic Meeting on Iran (4/13/21)
- Biden Says He Won’t Lift Sanctions Against Iran Over Nuclear Program - Do You Agree With the Move? (2/8/21)
- Trump Admin to Call for Iran Sanctions ‘Snapback’ at UN Security Council (8/20/20)
— Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: iStock.com / grynold)
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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring equipment (27 cameras) installed under the 2015 Iran Nuclear deal Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will be removed in 3-4 weeks time if some sort of an arrangement can not be reached after the Trump Administration pulled out of the deal and re-imposed sanctions, and recent IAEA inquiries on uranium traces go unanswered.
The E3 (France, Germany, UK) who have remained in the 2015 Agreement said Iran’s actions are undermining the agreement, and US Bilateral talks have stalled. The US has continued to recommend diplomacy and Des escalation and has not joined the E3 in condemning Iran.
Iran has continued to monitor and record data, it can not be immediately seen via cameras suggesting a deal can be reached to transmit the recorded data later. And 40 cameras still remain from previous agreements.
Disputes under negotiation are:
1) US blacklisting of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) which Iran says is their standing National Army
2) separation of the nuclear issue from other disagreement
3) guarantees that future administrations would respect any deal. US administrations not honoring agreements from previous administrations will cause problems for the US to negotiate any agreements in the future.
Hopefully some agreement can be reached that satisfies all parties.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-plans-disconnect-20-iaea-cameras-envoys-quote-grossi-saying-2022-06-09/
https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Iran-to-remove-monitoring-cameras
https://www.rferl.org/a/us-iran-nuclear-disagreement/31772671.html
This is upsetting, but we can't complain too much...we pulled out of the deal under Dear Donald and there's no reason for Iran to come to the table now and engage with new efforts.
This is why diplomacy needs to be consistent, and why new administrations should not pull out of international agreements on a whim, because there's no incentive for other countries to trust us when we behave this way.
I hope the IAEA and UN can negotiate with Iran, but I think the US has lost all credibility and we'll have to just sit back and watch as Iran continues its goal of achieving nuclear weapons.
i oppose it Iran was in compliance with the Iran nuclear agreement until the racist anti muslem republican trump pulled out and placed extreme sanctions on them because they refused to renegotiate the nuclear deai . iran wasnt the one who broke the agreement and it was the united states because we dont understand their traditions. and that is just getting picky about something they did explain and they dont have to answer to us they r country itself who was trying to reestablish a relationship with the unitedd states but because the republicans think that we r the only ones in the world they broke the nuclear agreement. next time a republican wants to offfend another country they should ask themselves this what right do we have to dictatte to another country that has differnt tradions and language the answer is we dont
When dealing with Iran, the only approach is to imagine the worst. They never could be trusted and never will.
The USA dropped the ball during the last administration by dropping the only agreement that firmly held Iran to standards and to which they had agreed. We now have far less leverage, but need to support these actions.
Thank you obama for making this possible
Why did Obama Democrat/Swamp send Iran $Billions while America was at war?
Another example of Trump's path of destruction through multilateral agreements that were actually working when dissolved. Iran now gets the bomb anyway and a nuclear arms race begins in the Middle East.
Iran Is a terrorist country should be treated as a terrorist country and they can care less about the UN that organization is a joke. The UN need to get direct together convene minus Russia minus China minus Iran. Put on new mass of sanctions against Iran and All Iranian embassies around the world shut down and sent all the dignitaries back home to Iran And band travel on all airplanes belonging to Iran .
I feel they are picking on Iran. Probably U.S. backed.
Trump created this mess by pulling out of the Iran deal.
Sure, activities should be disclosed. If we did it here it might help get dark money out of American politics.
Obviously but even more so because we wouldn't be here if Trump hadn't killed the deal in the first place.
As if this will solve the problem. There is too much lust for power and control in this world today that nothing will ever be accomplished for the betterment of all the people. I'm old school enough to realize that punishment must fit the crime. Granted too many innocent lives could potentially be lost if action were to be taken but its one of those situations that you're "damned if you do, damned if you don't" Iran wants something so we need to find out what the hell it is and take it from there. Not only have the politicians of the world gone to "hell in a handbasket" so has everything else. The love of money and power is the root of all evil.
I support.
Wow, that's harsh. Iran is getting criticized. I'm sure that will really change things. One problem we have nowadays it the reluctance/refusal to deal with bullies and criminals. We need real consequences to crimes and not just 'criticism'.
We do not want Iran to become another North Korea.
At this point is should be clear to everyone that Iran is "toying" with the rest of us regarding their desire to return to a tru nuclear enrichiment deal. I'm very sorry that we pulled out of the "so-so" deal that the Obama administration had come up with. It was not strong enough in my opinion; however, the pull out under Trump has made the world an even more dangerous place. Had the other deal been in place, we could have continued negotiating on other issues and pressed for greater transparency against what would have been the existing agreement. I wish there was a way to reach an honest negotiated settlement, but that's looking less and less possible now.
yes
This is why we need an agreement with them so we know what they are doing≥
I would support it but looking beyond the feel-good of the moment, I fear it would be "kicking another bear." And try this on: how would the US react to such a resolution against us? Our hands aren't completely clean....
The nuclear deal with Iran needs to be scrapped