UN watchdog demands Iran provide information on nuclear stockpile

The governing board of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has passed a United States-backed resolution demanding Iran provide “complete information” on its enriched ⁠uranium stocks and grant access to inspectors to verify them.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution came on Wednesday, while the US and Iran exchanged strikes after Washington blamed Tehran for the downing of an Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz.

The strikes marked the most significant escalation since a ceasefire in April ended weeks of devastating US and Israeli attacks on Iran and retaliatory Iranian assaults across the Gulf region.

Iran condemned the resolution and warned it could hinder efforts to end the war.

The resolution was submitted to the 35-member IAEA board by the US, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. It passed with 21 votes in favour, diplomats at the closed-door meeting told Reuters and AFP news agencies.

Russia, China and Niger voted against it, while 10 abstained, they said.

One country did not vote.

The IAEA estimates that Iran had 440kg of uranium enriched to 60 percent, close to weapons grade, when Israel and the US launched their first attacks on the country in June last year.

Three of Iran’s main nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan were hit.

Iran subsequently suspended cooperation with the IAEA, and inspectors have not seen the material since.

The resolution said the IAEA has not been able to verify whether uranium has been diverted and that Iran should “provide the Agency with complete information on nuclear material inventories”.

It also called on Iran to grant the IAEA the access it needs to verify that “without delay”.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Vienna, Reza Najafi, rejected the resolution as “counterproductive”, “politically motivated” and “legally flawed”.

He warned of fallout on the already fraught talks with US negotiators over ending the war completely.

“It further complicates the volatile situation, volatile ceasefire and the unfinished negotiations between Iran and the US,” he told AFP, adding: “We have warned about the consequences of such a wrongful act by the US and its supporters.”

Earlier, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi described the resolution as an attempt to shift the blame for the US-Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities back onto Tehran.

“This is a reversal of responsibility,” Gharibabadi wrote on X on Tuesday. “They target facilities under safeguards, disrupt nuclear safety and verification possibilities, and then use the Board of Governors to pressure Iran,” he said about the US and Israel.

“The Board of Governors should not become a venue for whitewashing military aggression and shifting its costs onto the victim country,” he added.

The US and Iran are in talks ⁠aimed at extending their ceasefire and paving the way for wider negotiations on ⁠issues including Iran’s nuclear programme.

Western nations have long accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, but Tehran denies the charge.