Iran opens new abundance facilities after UN nuclear watchdog condemns – National
The UN Nuclear Monitoring Body Commission officially discovered on Thursday that Iran has failed to comply with its nuclear obligations for 20 years, a move that could lead to further tensions and strive to restore UN sanctions on Tehran later this year.
Iran responded immediately, saying it would build new abundance facilities in “safe locations” and “also planned other measures.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said in a joint statement.
U.S. President Donald Trump has previously warned that if negotiations fail, Israel or the United States can carry out air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities – some American personnel and their families are beginning to leave the area under tension, a new Iranian-US conversation in Oman on Sunday. In Israel, the U.S. Embassy ordered U.S. government employees and their families to stay in Tel Aviv area for concerns about security.
According to diplomats, nineteen countries representing the board of directors of the IAEA, which represents the member states of the agency, voted to decide the resolution, and they issued anonymous conditions under anonymous conditions to describe the outcome of the closed vote.
Russia, China and Burkina Faso oppose this objection, with 11 abstentions and two without a vote.
In the draft resolution seen by the Associated Press, the board provided the answer to Iran’s call “no delay” in a long investigation into traces of uranium found at multiple locations that failed to be declared nuclear.
Western officials suspect uranium traces could provide further evidence that Iran did not have a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003.
The resolution was proposed by France, Britain, Germany and the United States.
Iran lists steps to retaliate against IAEA vote
Speaking on Iran's state television after the vote, a spokesman for the Iranian IAEA said his agency immediately informed the IAEA of “specifically effective” actions.
Get national news
For news that affects Canada and around the world, please sign up for breaking news alerts that were sent directly to you at the time.
“One is to launch a third secure website,” spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. He did not elaborate on the site, but the organization's chief Mohammad Eslami later described the site as “has been built, prepared and located in a safe and invincible place.”
Iran has two underground underground areas in Fordo and Natanz, and has been building tunnels in the mountains near Natanz since suspected Israeli sabotage attacks.
Another step is to replace the old centrifuge in Fordo. “This means that our production of enriched materials will increase significantly,” Kamalwandi said.
According to the draft resolution: “Since 2019, many of Iran’s failures have fulfilled their obligations, requiring the agency to provide comprehensive and timely cooperation for undeclared nuclear materials and activities at several undeclared locations in Iran… constitute an obligation under its safeguards agreement.”
Under these obligations (which are the nuclear non-proliferation treaty), it is legally necessary for Iran to declare all nuclear substances and activities and allow IAEA inspectors to verify that neither of them has been transferred from peaceful uses.
The draft resolution also found that the IAEA's “incompetence… to ensure full peace in Iran's nuclear program, has raised problems within the capacity of the UN Security Council because it assumes the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security.”
The draft resolution, which directly refers to the U.S.-Iran talks, highlighted “the support for diplomatic solutions to the problems posed by the Iranian nuclear program, including talks between the U.S. and Iran, led to the agreement reaching all international issues related to Iran’s nuclear activities and encourages constructive participation in diplomacy.”
Iran still has the opportunity to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency
Last week, a senior Western diplomat described the resolution as a “serious step” but added that Western countries “have not closed their diplomatic doors on this issue.” However, if Iran does not cooperate, an extraordinary IAEA board meeting could be held in the summer, during which another resolution could be passed to the Security Council, as he did not want to be named because he did not have the right to discuss the issue with the media.
If Iran does not provide a “technically credible” answer to the UN nuclear oversight agency's questions, the three European countries have repeatedly threatened to restore or “seize” sanctions in the past.
In a joint statement to the International Atomic Conference Committee, three European countries said they would “spent without any effort to work for diplomatic solutions”, but added that if there is no satisfactory agreement, they would “consider triggering an anti-Divide mechanism to deal with the threat of international peace and security threats arising from Iran’s nuclear program.”
The mandate to reestablish these sanctions through complaints from any member of the original nuclear agreement in 2015 will expire in October, leaving the West to put pressure on Tehran before it loses that power.
The resolution was made by the so-called “comprehensive report” of high heels circulated by the IAEA last weekend. The UN nuclear watchdog said in its report that Iran’s cooperation with the agency was “not satisfactory”, a trace of uranium found by agency inspectors at several locations in Iran.
One of the sites was publicly known in 2018 after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the site at the United Nations and called it a secret nuclear warehouse hidden in a carpet cleaning factory. Iran denied this, but in 2019, IAEA inspectors found traces of uranium from there and two other sites.
–Gambrell reported on Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran contributed to the report.
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
