A non-binding statement by the United States, Britain, France, and Germany on Wednesday demanding an explanation from Iran for why uranium traces were discovered at three unauthorized sites, was supported by two-thirds of the 35-nation Board of Governors of the UN nuclear watchdog.
Since then, according to the Vienna-based IAEA, Iran has not made any progress or shown any interest. Instead of adopting a new resolution at the board meeting this week, the four nations that supported the June resolution—the United States, Britain, France, and Germany—issued a joint statement reiterating their support for that wording and worked to persuade as many other nations to sign it.
Germany’s joint statement to the board stated, “We call upon Iran to act quickly to fulfill its legal duties and, without delay, take up the (IAEA) Director General’s offer of additional engagement to clarify and resolve all outstanding safeguards problems.”
23 nations on the board supported it, according to a list of countries Germany gave. Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Senegal, and Vietnam were among the 12 that did not.
It has fewer supports than the June resolution, which only Russia and China opposed and received the support of 30 nations. These two also rejected the united statement released on Wednesday. In June, Pakistan and India voted against it. Libya changed its vote on the resolution from abstention to supporting the joint statement.
An official decision made by the IAEA’s top policy-making body, which meets more than once a year, is equivalent to a resolution adopted by the Board of Governors. Without submitting and adopting a resolution, nations that come together to release a statement are only expressing an opinion.
Since Tehran is now requesting closure of the IAEA’s inquiry as part of those negotiations, Western governments claim that the problem of the unexplained uranium particles has become a barrier in broader talks to renew Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with global powers.
The three European powers warned on Saturday that this has jeopardized efforts to salvage the now severely degraded agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear operations in exchange for relief from Western sanctions.
