France, Germany and Britain circulated a draft resolution against Iran ahead of next week’s meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog council and seem intent on pushing it through despite US opposition, Euractiv reports.
Reuters reported on 24 May that the US and its European partners, known as the E3, are divided over whether to confront Iran. The US fears that such a resolution could provoke further escalation in the region and shake up an already fragile situation ahead of the November US elections. A senior European official said:
We are pushing the Americans, but they remain stuck in the thinking that nothing should be done to escalate with Iran. That has achieved nothing so far and we believe we need to show firmness now.
Tehran reacts with exasperation to such resolutions and often escalates its activities.
It has been 18 months since the International Atomic Energy Agency board last passed a resolution against Iran ordering it to cooperate urgently with the IAEA in a multi-year investigation into uranium particles found at three undeclared sites, indicating possible nuclear activity.
While the number of sites in question has been reduced to two, Iran has yet to explain what those traces are. Other problems in Iran have also increased, including Tehran’s failure to allow many of the IAEA’s top uranium enrichment experts onto the inspection team.
EU asks to submit a “comprehensive report”
Three diplomats said on Wednesday that the E3 had shared the draft text with countries on the IAEA’s 35-nation board. The diplomats said the resolution focuses on the probe and mentions the possibility of asking IAEA chief Rafael Grossi to submit a “comprehensive report” on Iran’s nuclear activities, more extensive than his usual quarterly reports.
It does not threaten to refer the matter to the UN Security Council. They have yet to formally submit it, which could happen as early as early next week.
Iran is enriching uranium at a steady pace to near-weapons-grade levels, while discussions to improve its co-operation with the UN nuclear watchdog have stalled, two confidential watchdog reports showed on Monday.
Concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities
Concerns about Iran’s atomic activities have long existed. For three years it has been enriching uranium to 60 per cent purity, still below the 90 per cent that is weapons-grade. According to the IAEA, it has enough material enriched to that level, and if further refined, enough for three nuclear bombs.
Western powers argue that enriching uranium to that level has no real civilian energy purpose, and the IAEA says no other country has done so without making nuclear weapons. Iran says its goals are exclusively peaceful.
But in recent IAEA board meetings, the US has been reluctant to push for another resolution against Iran. Before the last meeting in March, European powers had already disagreed with Washington on whether to push for a resolution before backing down.
