Europe wants IAEA to ‘rebuke’ Iran for denying access to nuclear watchdog inspectors

Major European countries want the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to rebuke Iran over its refusal to give access to inspectors at sites suspected of nuclear activities. According to media reports, a draft resolution put forward by the UK, France, and Germany, calls on Iran to cooperate with the nuclear watchdog.

The UN nuclear watchdog has been overseeing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as Iran nuclear deal, and issuing quarterly updates to its member states. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned about a “secret atomic warehouse”, IAEA came under public pressure and inspected the site in February 2019 and reportedly found traces of uranium that Iran has not explained till date.

In March, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi had called on Iran to cooperate immediately and fully with the agency and provide prompt access to locations which it has refused to let inspectors visit. Grossi said that the agency has identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three locations that have not been declared by Iran.

“The agency sought access to two of the locations. Iran has not provided access to these locations and has not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify the Agency’s questions,” he added.

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Reports concerning nuclear commitments

Grossi, who took up office in December 2019, had presented two Iran-related reports to the agency’s Board of Governors. While the first report concerned Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA, the other described the agency’s efforts to clarify information relating to the correctness and completeness of Iran’s declarations.

The United States, Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France entered a deal in 2015 agreeing to provide sanctions relief to Iran in lieu of preventing it from developing nuclear weapons. Later in 2018, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the deal, calling it “the worst deal ever”.

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