By Francois Murphy and John Irish
VIENNA/PARIS, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The United States, Britain, France and Germany are seeking a resolution by the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s board next week reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years, according to diplomats and the proposed text seen by Reuters.
If passed, the resolution would follow up on one adopted on June 12 of last year declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for not fully cooperating with an investigation into uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
Israel started bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities the next day, soon joined by the U.S. Iran’s uranium-enrichment plants were destroyed or badly damaged.
Iran has not let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors return to the bombed sites since then or verify what remains of its stocks of enriched uranium, some of which was enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
FRESH DIPLOMATIC ESCALATION
A resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation board reporting Iran to the Security Council would also be the culmination of a standoff over IAEA access to those sites, since the board has passed two resolutions in the past year demanding Iran declare its enriched uranium stocks and grant the IAEA full access to verify them.
“(The board) requests the (IAEA) Director General to transmit this resolution and the previously adopted resolutions … to all Members of the Agency and to the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations,” said the latest resolution draft seen by Reuters.
It also “reiterates its call upon Iran to urgently remedy its non-compliance with its Safeguards Agreement by taking all steps deemed necessary by the Agency and the Board, so that the Director General can provide the necessary assurances regarding the correctness and completeness of Iran’s declarations”.
The draft has not yet been formally submitted to the board and negotiations over the exact wording are ongoing, diplomats said. Whenever the four powers have submitted a draft resolution on Iran in recent years, it has passed.
Concrete action by the Security Council against Iran is unlikely since Tehran’s allies Russia and China are permanent, veto-wielding members.
IAEA CONCERNS OVER ENRICHMENT
Iran has often retaliated following IAEA board resolutions against it by escalating its nuclear activities or scaling back cooperation with the IAEA, but its options for both are currently extremely limited.
It is unclear what other repercussions there might be on Tehran’s conflict with the U.S.
As a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the right to develop nuclear technology, including enrichment, for peaceful purposes. Iran says it would never produce nuclear weapons.
It is, however, the only country to enrich to 60% without making a bomb. The IAEA has said the amount it has enriched to that level is of serious concern.
The IAEA estimates Iran had 440.9 kg of uranium enriched to that level before its sites were bombed. That is enough, if enriched further, for 10 nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy and John Irish; Editing by Alison Williams, Kevin Liffey and Timothy Heritage)
