UN Watchdog Declares Iran in Nuclear Breach After Years

Post by : Bianca Suleiman

Photo: Reuters

For the first time in nearly 20 years, the United Nations’ nuclear agency has officially said that Iran broke its promises to not work on secret nuclear activities. This important step was taken on Thursday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during a meeting of its 35-nation Board of Governors.

This decision could lead to Iran being reported to the UN Security Council, where even stronger actions could be taken. This situation became worse after former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in 2018. Since then, the deal has fallen apart, and Iran has started building up its nuclear program again.

Iran strongly opposes this kind of resolution and has already said it will react by increasing its nuclear activities. This could make things even more difficult as the U.S. and Iran are trying to talk about creating new limits on Iran’s nuclear work.

The situation is especially tense now. The U.S. has moved some of its staff out of the Middle East. Donald Trump also warned that the region could become more dangerous and promised that the U.S. would not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons.

The resolution that was passed at the IAEA meeting was supported by 19 countries, while 11 countries did not vote either way. Three countries — Russia, China, and Burkina Faso — voted against it. The resolution was put forward by the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany.

The decision was based on a report from May 31 that showed Iran has not explained how traces of uranium were found at places it hadn’t told the IAEA about. This is a serious concern because uranium is used to make nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.

The report also said that three of the four secret locations were part of a secret nuclear program that Iran ran until the early 2000s. Some of the nuclear material used in that program had not been declared, which means Iran hid it from inspectors.

U.S. intelligence and the IAEA both believe Iran was working on building nuclear weapons in secret but stopped in 2003. However, some small experiments continued for a few years after that. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said this week's findings match what was already believed.

Iran continues to say that it never tried to build nuclear weapons.

Even though this new resolution talks about the possibility of reporting Iran to the UN Security Council, it would take a second vote for that to happen — just like it did back in 2006. That time, Iran was officially referred to the Security Council months after being declared in violation.

This story is a major development in global politics, and many countries are now watching closely to see what Iran does next.