UN Nuclear Watchdog Censures Iran      06/12 06:35

   The U.N. nuclear watchdog's board of governors on Thursday formally found 
that Iran isn't complying with its nuclear obligations for the first time in 20 
years, a move that could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort 
to restore United Nations sanctions on Tehran later this year.

   VIENNA (AP) -- The U.N. nuclear watchdog's board of governors on Thursday 
formally found that Iran isn't complying with its nuclear obligations for the 
first time in 20 years, a move that could lead to further tensions and set in 
motion an effort to restore United Nations sanctions on Tehran later this year.

   Iran reacted immediately, saying it will establish a new enrichment facility 
"in a secure location" and that "other measures are also being planned."

   "The Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice but to respond to this political 
resolution," the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of 
Iran said in a joint statement.

   U.S. President Donald Trump previously warned that Israel or America could 
carry out airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations 
failed -- and some American personnel and their families have begun leaving the 
region over the tensions, which come ahead of a new round of Iran-U.S. talks 
Sunday in Oman. In Israel, the U.S. Embassy ordered American government 
employees and their families to remain in the Tel Aviv area over security 
concerns.

   Nineteen countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency's board, which 
represents the agency's member nations, voted for the resolution, according to 
diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the 
closed-doors vote.

   Russia, China and Burkina Faso opposed it, 11 abstained and two did not vote.

   In the draft resolution seen by The Associated Press, the board of governors 
renews a call on Iran to provide answers "without delay" in a long-running 
investigation into uranium traces found at several locations that Tehran has 
failed to declare as nuclear sites.

   Western officials suspect that the uranium traces could provide further 
evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003.

   The resolution was put forward by France, the U.K., Germany and the United 
States.

   Iran lists steps in retaliation for the IAEA vote

   Speaking to Iranian state television after the vote, the spokesman for the 
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said that his agency immediately informed 
the IAEA of "specific and effective" actions Tehran would take.

   "One is the launch of a third secure site" for enrichment, spokesman Behrouz 
Kamalvandi said. He did not elaborate on the location. Iran has two underground 
sites at Fordo and Natanz and has been building tunnels in the mountains near 
Natanz since suspected Israeli sabotage attacks targeted that facility.

   The other step would be replacing old centrifuges for advanced ones at 
Fordo. "The implication of this is that our production of enriched materials 
will significantly increase," Kamalvandi said.

   According to the draft resolution, "Iran's many failures to uphold its 
obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation 
regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared 
locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its 
Safeguards Agreement."

   Under those obligations, which are part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty, Iran is legally bound to declare all nuclear material and activities 
and allow IAEA inspectors to verify that none of it is being diverted from 
peaceful uses.

   The draft resolution also finds that the IAEA's "inability ... to provide 
assurance that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful gives rise to 
questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Security 
Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of 
international peace and security."

   The draft resolution made a direct reference to the U.S.-Iran talks, 
stressing its "support for a diplomatic solution to the problems posed by the 
Iranian nuclear program, including the talks between the United States and 
Iran, leading to an agreement that addresses all international concerns related 
to Iran's nuclear activities, encouraging all parties to constructively engage 
in diplomacy."

   Still a chance for Iran to cooperate with IAEA

   A senior Western diplomat last week described the resolution as a "serious 
step," but added that Western nations are "not closing the door to diplomacy on 
this issue." However, if Iran fails to cooperate, an extraordinary IAEA board 
meeting will likely be held in the summer, during which another resolution 
could get passed that will refer the issue to the Security Council, the 
diplomat said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss 
the issue with the media.

   The three European nations have repeatedly threatened in the past to 
reinstate, or "snapback," sanctions that have been lifted under the original 
2015 Iran nuclear deal if Iran does not provide "technically credible" answers 
to the U.N. nuclear watchdog's questions.

   The authority to reestablish those sanctions by the complaint of any member 
of the original 2015 nuclear deal expires in October, putting the West on a 
clock to exert pressure on Tehran over its program before losing that power.

   The resolution comes on heels of the IAEA's so-called "comprehensive report" 
that was circulated among member states last weekend. In the report, the U.N. 
nuclear watchdog said that Iran's cooperation with the agency has "been less 
than satisfactory" when it comes to uranium traces discovered by agency 
inspectors at several locations in Iran.

   One of the sites became known publicly in 2018, after Israeli Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu revealed it at the United Nations and called it a 
clandestine nuclear warehouse hidden at a rug-cleaning plant. Iran denied this, 
but in 2019, IAEA inspectors detected the presence of uranium traces there as 
well as at two other sites.