Iran has been censured for not fully answering the global nuclear watchdog's questions about uranium traces found at three undeclared sites, diplomats say.

The International Atomic Agency's board passed a resolution by the US, UK, France and Germany that urges Tehran to co-operate with its probe.

The IAEA's director general said it had not received "credible" explanations for the presence of uranium particles.

Iran has said they could have been planted in an "act of sabotage".

The resolution - the first against Iran since June 2020 - expresses "profound concern that the safeguards issues related to these three undeclared locations remain outstanding due to insufficient substantive co-operation by Iran". It also urges the country to "act on an urgent basis to fulfil its legal obligations".

Russia and China voted against the document.

Iran had rejected the resolution before the vote and warned of consequences.

Earlier on Wednesday, the country announced that it had turned off two IAEA surveillance cameras that were installed at a nuclear facility as part of a 2015 deal with the US, the three European countries, China and Russia.

The agreement saw Iran agree to curb its nuclear programme in relief from economic sanctions. But it has been close to collapse since the US pulled out unilaterally and reinstated sanctions four years ago and Iran responded by breaching key commitments.

Indirect talks between the US and Iran aimed at reviving the deal have stalled since March.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and that it has never sought nuclear weapons, but evidence collected by the IAEA suggests that until 2003 it conducted activities relevant to the development of a nuclear bomb.

On Monday, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told a meeting of the watchdog's 35-nation board of governors that he was still unable to confirm the correctness and completeness of Iran's declarations under the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Mr Grossi said that was because Iran had "not provided explanations that are technically credible in relation to the agency's findings at three undeclared locations", which he named as Turquzabad, Varamin and Marivan.

According to the IAEA, environmental samples taken by inspectors at the three locations in 2019 or 2020 indicated the presence of "multiple natural uranium particles of anthropogenic [man-made] origin".

Turquzabad - The IAEA observed scraping and landscaping activities at the location in late 2018, after Israel alleged that Iran had a "secret atomic warehouse" in Tehran's Turquzabad district. Environmental samples indicated the uranium traces as well as "isotopically altered particles of low enriched uranium"

Varamin - IAEA inspectors found indications of "the possible use and storage of nuclear material and/or conduct of nuclear-related activities" at this location, which may have been used for the processing and conversion of uranium ore in 2003. The location underwent significant changes in 2004, including the demolition of most buildings

Marivan - Iran is suspected of planning to use and store nuclear material at the location in 2003. In one part of the site, where outdoor conventional explosive testing may have taken place, the IAEA found indications "relating to the testing of shielding in preparation for the use of neutron detectors". From 2019 onwards, the IAEA observed activities consistent with efforts to sanitise part of the location, including the demolition of buildings

Mr Grossi said Iran had also not informed the IAEA "of the current location, or locations, of the nuclear material and/or of the equipment contaminated with nuclear material, that was moved from Turquzabad in 2018".

The director of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, insisted on Wednesday that his country had "no hidden or undocumented nuclear activities or undisclosed sites".

Iran had maintained "maximum co-operation" with the IAEA, he said, adding that "fake documents" had been passed to the watchdog as part of a "maximum pressure" strategy provoked by Israel, its arch-enemy.

Watching enrichment rates

On Tuesday, AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi confirmed that Iran had told Mr Grossi that the three locations could have been deliberately contaminated by a third party.

"The esteemed head of the agency can comprehend, using a bit of rationality, that in a country as vast as Iran with great geographic variety, it is possible to create contamination through human sabotage in remote places," he wrote in a commentary for the Irna state news agency.

Mr Grossi also warned on Monday that Iran was "just a few weeks" away from having stockpiled enough enriched uranium to create a nuclear bomb. Enriched uranium is used to make reactor fuel, but also nuclear weapons.

The IAEA's latest report said Iran had 43.1kg (95lb) of uranium enriched to 60% purity, which Kelsey Davenport of the US-based Arms Control Association said could be enriched to 90%, or weapons-grade, in under 10 days. However, Ms Davenport noted that "weaponization" - manufacturing a nuclear warhead for a missile - would still take one to two years.

Iran retaliated for the US sanctions reinstated by then-President Donald Trump in 2018 by increasingly exceeding the agreed limit on its stockpile of enriched uranium, enriching to a higher purity than allowed, and using more enrichment centrifuges, and of a more advanced type, than permitted.

President Joe Biden said after taking office that the US would rejoin the nuclear deal and lift its sanctions if Iran returned to compliance. But indirect negotiations between them in Vienna have been paused since March because of what the state department has described as a small number of issues.

They include an Iranian demand that the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) force be removed from the US list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organisations, which Mr Biden is reportedly refusing to do.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by David Gritten | BBC News

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