In first since 2005, IAEA declares Iran in nuclear noncompliance

The international community “must respond decisively to Iran’s non-compliance and take measures to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons,” the Israeli foreign ministry said.

By JNS

For the first time in nearly two decades, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-member Board of Governors on Thursday declared Iran to be in violation of its non-proliferation commitments, potentially paving the way for a referral to the U.N. Security Council.

This move, reported by Reuters and others, follows a series of long-standing disputes between Iran and the IAEA, which intensified after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran and other world powers in 2018. The deal has since collapsed.

The resolution comes amid escalated regional tensions in light of the ongoing U.S.-Iran talks aimed at curtailing Iran’s nuclear program.

Nineteen countries voted in favor of the resolution in a closed-door session, Reuters reported. Eleven abstained, and three—Russia, China and Burkina Faso—opposed the resolution. It was introduced by the United States, Britain, France, and Germany.

The resolution, which follows a critical report submitted by the IAEA to member states on May 31, states:

“The Board of Governors … finds that 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 with the Agency.”

In a statement, Israel’s foreign minister said that “Iran has engaged in a systematic clandestine nuclear weapons program. It is rapidly accumulating highly enriched uranium, clearly proving the nature of the program is for non-peaceful purposes.”

This and Iran’s consistent concealment efforts, the ministry said, “undermine the global non-proliferation regime and pose an imminent threat to regional and international security and stability.”

The international community “must respond decisively to Iran’s non-compliance and take measures to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons,” the Israeli foreign ministry added.

One of the central concerns is Iran’s continued inability to offer credible answers about uranium traces discovered at undeclared sites, following years of IAEA investigations.

According to the May 31 IAEA report—a “comprehensive” board-mandated assessment—three of the four sites in question “were part of an undeclared structured nuclear program carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material,” Reuters reported.

Israeli, U.S. intelligence agencies, and the IAEA have long maintained that Iran had either run or was running a covert and coordinated nuclear weapons program at the time.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi remarked this week that the latest findings were “broadly consistent” with those earlier assessments, according to Reuters.

Iran continues to deny ever having sought nuclear weapons.

Though the resolution hints at a possible referral to the U.N. Security Council, diplomats noted that a second resolution would be necessary for that step, similar to the process followed when Iran was previously found in non-compliance in September 2005 and formally referred in February 2006.

The Security Council subsequently demanded Iran suspend its programs. In 2007, the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate stated Iran halted an alleged active nuclear weapons program in 2003. Israel has repeatedly accused Iran since then of promoting a nuclear arms program and hiding it.