The Board of Governors (BoG) of the United Nations nuclear agency, the IAEA, has passed a resolution against Iran despite warnings from Tehran that it would react decisively to such a measure.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation BoG passed the resolution with 20 in favor and two against with 12 abstentions during its Wednesday meeting.
The resolution urged Iran to cooperate more with the IAEA and to allow increased number of inspectors to visit nuclear sites in the country.
It came two days after IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Iran has yet to provide the Agency with “technically credible explanations” about the presence of uranium particles at two of its nuclear sites.
As part of a joint statement announced by Iran and the IAEA on March 4, 2023, the two sides have resolved issues related to one of the three sites flagged by the Agency for alleged presence of uranium particles.
Iran had warned in recent days that it would react to a new IAEA resolution as officials insist the country’s nuclear activities are totally peaceful and has been in line with the Agency’s guidelines and resolutions.
Grossi told reporters in Vienna on Monday that he is neither in favor nor against a new BoG resolution against Iran as he indicated that such a measure may harm good agreements he had reached with Iranian authorities during a trip to the country in early May.
The resolution was supported and put forward by Britain, France and Germany, the three parties to a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world power.
Iran says the E3, as the three are known, have failed to comply with their economic obligations under the nuclear deal since the withdrawal of the United States from the agreement in 2018.
The three issued a statement proposing the IAEA resolution on Wednesday, calling on Iran to “urgently, fully and unambiguously co-operate with the Agency”.
The resolution also demanded that Iran reverses a decision it took in September to scale back the number of IAEA inspectors in the country.