Sources close to the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog say the United States and its allies will not propose a resolution against Iran at the upcoming IAEA Board of Governors meeting.
Vienna-based journalist Stephanie Liechtenstein cited diplomatic sources as saying that no resolution censuring Tehran’s nuclear program is planned for the meeting, slated to start on September 11.
The International Atomic Energy Agency did not adopt any resolution against Iran also in its previous meetings in March and June. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Iran in early March and announced new arrangements with Tehran to restore the monitoring of nuclear enrichment activities.
However, despite Grossi's claims of a deal to return to a closer monitoring process and resolve the issue of three sites found to have been contaminated by traces of uranium, no progress has been made since March. The only result of his trip was that the West refrained from censuring Iran at the following IAEA board meetings.
Liechtenstein noted that “Instead, E3 (France, Germany, and the UK) and US are drafting a joint statement that they will open up for co-signature from other countries.”
The joint statement is seen as a symbolic move against the backdrop of a reported secret deal between Tehran and Washington, announced as a prisoner swap agreement. Iran will release five Americans in exchange for its funds released from banks in South Korea and Iraq, blocked after the US withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
In reports to diplomats of countries forming the board of directors of the IAEA, the watchdog’s experts say that Iran's stock of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, close to weapons grade, continues to grow but it grew just seven percent in the last three months compared with a 30-percent increase in the previous quarter.
The report was not officially released by the IAEA and was only reported in parts by some agencies such as the Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg. This was the excuse Vedant Patel, the Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State, used to dodge questions about the report in his press briefing on Tuesday.
“I am not going to comment on an IAEA report that has not been made public yet,” he said, adding that “Iran’s production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent has no credible peaceful purpose.”
Mocking the ‘joint statement,’ deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) Andrea Stricker said that “US policy has allowed Iran to accumulate 5, 20, 60% enriched uranium and maintain nuke breakout capability, not cooperate on IAEA probe or reinstall cameras, hide away advanced centrifuges, and get $10 billion and unhindered oil exports.” “Why bother with a joint statement?”
In reports to diplomats of countries forming the board of directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the watchdog’s experts also said there has been no progress in talks with Tehran on sensitive issues such as explaining uranium traces at undeclared sites. The head of Iran’s nuclear agency has claimed repeatedly in recent months that the IAEA’s questions have been “satisfactorily” addressed regarding to the undeclared sites use more than two decades ago.
According to one of the confidential quarterly reports to member states seen by Reuters and other media, the IAEA said Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60-percent purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade, continued to increase albeit at a slower pace, despite some of it having been diluted.
"The (IAEA) Director General (Rafael Grossi) regrets that there has been no progress in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues in this reporting period," one report said, referring to Iran's failure to credibly explain the origin of uranium particles found at two undeclared sites.
The reports, sent to IAEA member states ahead of a quarterly meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors next week, also said that after limited progress on re-installing IAEA surveillance cameras in the previous quarter, there had since been none, further raising tensions with Western powers.
Iran and the IAEA announced an agreement in March on re-installing surveillance cameras introduced under a deal with major powers in 2015 but removed at Iran's behest last year. Only a fraction of the cameras and other monitoring devices the IAEA wanted to set up have been installed. But US officials have already acknowledged, according to Bloomberg that they have reduced enforcement of sanctions that has led to a doubling of Iran's oil exports since mid 2022.
Adding to the issues likely to cause tension with the West, Iran's stock of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent grew by an estimated 7.5 kg to 121.6 kg, the report said, even though 6.4 kg of it was diluted with uranium enriched to a lower level.
Iran's production of uranium enriched to up 60 percent has slowed to around 3 kg a month from about 9 kg a month previously, a senior diplomat said.
Other diplomats have said the slowdown could be part of so-called "de-escalation" efforts between Iran and the United States also involving Iranian funds frozen abroad and US prisoners held in Iran, though US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has denied the issues are linked.
"Of course, Iran claims (the slowdown in enrichment to up to 60%) as a positive, but more HEU (highly enriched uranium) is still more HEU," one Western diplomat said.
CAMERAS WITHOUT FOOTAGE
Iran's stock of uranium enriched to 60 percent is now almost three times the roughly 42 kg that by the IAEA's definition is theoretically enough, if enriched further, to produce a nuclear bomb. Experts add, however, that some uranium would be lost in the process. Iran denies wanting to produce nuclear weapons.
The IAEA continues to have regular access to Iran's declared nuclear facilities and its core nuclear activities under long-standing agreements that predate the 2015 nuclear deal, but the 2015 deal added monitoring to areas such as the production of parts for centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium.
Even where IAEA monitoring equipment has been re-installed, such as at a site in Isfahan, it does not have access to the footage that its cameras record since that was not included in the March agreement it negotiated with Iran.
One of Monday's reports spelled out that problem.
"The Director General reiterates that for Agency cameras to be effective, including those installed at Esfahan, the Agency needs access to the data they record."
With reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg
