For first time in 20 years, Western powers to submit resolution at IAEA finding Iran non-compliant with rules

By AP 5 June 2025, 9:40 pm

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The Iranian flag outside the IAEA headquarters during the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on November 20, 2024. (Joe Klamar/AFP)

VIENNA, Austria — Western nations are planning to table a resolution at a meeting of the UN’s nuclear agency that will find Iran in non-compliance with its so-called safeguards obligations for the first time in 20 years, a senior Western diplomat says.

The move comes at a sensitive time as US President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to reach a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program. The two sides have held several rounds of talks, so far without agreement.

A draft resolution, jointly tabled by France, the UK and Germany, known as the E3, together with the United States, was circulated today after a final sign-off by Washington.

The State Department does not immediately comment.

The draft resolution, which was seen by The Associated Press, says: “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.”

The draft resolution furthermore finds that the IAEA’s “inability … to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Security Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”

It requests IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi “to continue his efforts to implement this and previous resolutions and to report again, including any further developments on the issues.”

The text of the draft may change before it is formally tabled, as board members have the opportunity to suggest amendments.

Under the so-called safeguards obligations, that are part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is legally bound to declare all nuclear material and activities and allow IAEA inspectors to verify that none of it is being diverted from peaceful uses.