Motion to censure Iran tover undeclared nuclear work submitted to UN watchdog

By AFP 7 June 2022, 1:48 pm

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The flag of Iran waves in front of the International Center building with the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, in Vienna, Austria, on May 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter, File)

VIENNA — The United States, Britain, France and Germany have submitted a motion to the UN atomic energy watchdog to censure Iran over its lack of cooperation with the agency, two diplomats say today.

“The text was submitted overnight,” a European diplomat tells AFP. A second diplomat confirms the news.

The resolution urging Iran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) marks the first time since June 2020 when a similar motion censuring Iran was adopted.

It is a sign of growing Western impatience after talks to revive the 2015 landmark nuclear accord with Iran stalled in March.

The vote is likely to happen on Thursday during the weeklong meeting of the IAEA’s 35-member Board of Governors, one of the diplomats said.

In a report late last month, the IAEA said it still had questions that were “not clarified” regarding traces of enriched uranium previously found at three sites, which Iran had not declared as having hosted nuclear activities.