A governing panel of the International Atomic Energy Agency rebuked Iran for denying access to sites suspected to have been involved in an illicit weapons program, the first such vote to pass since 2012.
“Iran has so far shown no intention of curtailing the ongoing expansion of its nuclear program and for months has refused to provide the answers and access required for the IAEA to conduct its critical verification work,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday. “Given Iran’s prior covert nuclear weapons effort, it is imperative that Iran verifiably demonstrate that it has permanently abandoned all such work.”
The resolution condemned Iran for stonewalling inspectors who want to access facilities that Israeli intelligence officers exposed in 2018 following an operation. The measure was a rare moment of unity for the United States and its European allies as they denounced Tehran’s defiance of its obligations under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty despite their disagreements over Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“Russia and China tried to shield Iran from scrutiny,” Brian Hook, the State Department’s point man for Iran policy, told reporters Friday. “As nuclear powers, China and Russia have special responsibilities not to support nations who play cat and mouse with the IAEA. Their votes were irresponsible, and the international community deserves better behavior.”
The public split over the IAEA inspections could foreshadow a deeper rupture at the United Nations Security Council. Trump administration officials, in an attempt to press Russia and China to agree to an extension of the arms embargo on Iran, are threatening to invoke a provision of the 2015 nuclear deal that enables the U.S. to renew all international sanctions unilaterally — a prospect that irritates both the authoritarian and Western members of the council, given Trump’s previous withdrawal from the pact.
“Increasingly, the politics of the Iran nuclear dispute is taking on elements of the great power rivalry between the U.S. on one hand and Russia and China on the other,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior analyst Behnam Ben Taleblu said Friday.
American officials reveled in the united democratic front against Iran’s nuclear program after years of acrimony related to disputes over the 2015 nuclear deal.
“We now have an opportunity to either stand together or not stand together in insisting that the rule of law be followed here, that Iran live up to its safeguards obligations,” Christopher A. Ford, the State Department’s lead official for nonproliferation issues, told reporters.
Pompeo, for his part, took care to embrace the IAEA. That is a change from his posture during the days when Iran deal proponents would invoke the agency’s affirmation that Iran was in technical compliance with the 2015 pact to criticize the American withdrawal.
“The United States remains committed to denying Iran any pathway to a nuclear weapon and will work through the IAEA’s board of governors to provide the IAEA the support it needs to resolve these serious matters,” he said.
