UN watchdog presses Iran over nuke violations, Iran threatens retaliation
"Iran fully rejects this resolution and will respond appropriately...those who made this decision will bear responsibility for its consequences," Iranian official Kazem Gharib Abadi said.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBHead of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali-Akbar Salehi attends the opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference at their headquarters in Vienna, Austria September 16, 2019(photo credit: REUTERS/LEONHARD FOEGER)
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors passed a resolution on Friday calling on Iran to grant access to two suspected former nuclear sites and answer questions about possible undeclared nuclear material.The resolution – submitted by France, Germany and the United Kingdom – was adopted by a vote of 25 to 2 with 7 abstentions. Crucially, the two countries voting against the resolution were Russia and China.The resolution could pressure Iran to let inspectors into the two sites mentioned in the IAEA’s March and early June reports and to clarify the origin of undeclared nuclear material which IAEA inspectors found at another site.A statement from the IAEA said, “The resolution stressed the importance of states complying fully with their safeguards obligations and facilitating access as required when notified by the IAEA.”Iran’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Kazem Gharib Abadi responded that Tehran completely rejects the resolution adopted by the IAEA Board of Governors.“Iran fully rejects this resolution and will respond appropriately,” ISNA news agency quotes him as saying. Gharib Abadi added, “those who made this decision will bear responsibility for its consequences.”According to the envoy, the resolution was adopted “based on false and unfounded accusations.”“This is a completely unconstructive and political move that pushes us towards an unnecessary crisis of cooperation [between Tehran and IAEA],” the Iranian envoy said.Russian Ambassador to the International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted: “The IAEA BG adopted resolution calling upon Iran to provide access to 2 locations specified by [the] Agency. Russia and China voted against. While stressing the need for Tehran and IAEA to settle this problem without delay, we believe that the resolution can be counter productive.”Prior to the vote, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had said the Islamic Republic could find “an agreeable” compromise with the IAEA on the issue if the board tabled the resolution.However, it appeared that after Tehran has dragged its feet on one of the issues for four months and another issue for 12 months, that the IAEA Board of Governors has started to lose its patience.Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Friday lauded the IAEA resolution calling on the Islamic Republic to allow “immediate access to sites where suspected violations are taking place.”“We’ve known for years that Iran is concealing blatant violations of the Non-Proliferation treaty,” the former IDF Chief of Staff tweeted.Regarding the two nuclear facilities the IAEA wishes to visit and the unexplained nuclear material, The Jerusalem Post previously reported that virtually all of the evidence leading to the IAEA pressure on Iran for these issues relate to a January 2018 Mossad operation.During that operation, the Mossad successfully spirited out of Iran massive amounts of physical and electronic secret nuclear files which the regime had sought to conceal from the IAEA about its nuclear weapons program.Britain, France and Germany said on Friday they would not support US efforts to trigger the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran.“We firmly believe that any unilateral attempt to trigger UN sanctions snapback would have serious adverse consequences in the UN Security Council,” the three foreign ministers said in a joint statement after meeting in Berlin to discuss Iran.“We would not support such a decision, which would be incompatible with our current efforts to preserve the JCPoA (Iran nuclear deal).”Later on Friday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry blasted the resolution, saying Tehran has cooperated with the body, in a statement by state media.“While Iran has the highest level of cooperation with the IAEA, the issuance of a resolution by the Board of Governors is a completely unconstructive and a disappointing step,” ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in the statement.The UN nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors called on Iran in the resolution earlier on Friday to stop denying the agency access to two suspected former sites and to cooperate fully with it, diplomats attending the meeting said.Reuters and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
