The UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors on Thursday formally found that Iran was not complying with its nuclear obligations, a move that could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort to restore sanctions on Tehran later this year.
Nineteen countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board, which represents the agency’s member nations, voted for the resolution, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-doors vote.
Russia, China and Burkina Faso opposed it, 11 abstained and two did not vote.
In the draft resolution, the board of governors renews a call on Iran to provide answers "without delay" in a long-running investigation into uranium traces found at several locations that Tehran has failed to declare as nuclear sites.
Western officials suspect that the uranium traces could provide evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons programme until 2003.
The resolution was put forward by France, the UK, Germany and the United States.
Iran's government did not immediately respond to the vote, though it has threatened to retaliate immediately.
"Iran’s many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely co-operation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement," the draft resolution says.
Regional tensions
Under the so-called safeguards obligations, which are part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is legally bound to declare all nuclear material and activities and allow IAEA inspectors to verify that none of it is being diverted from peaceful uses.
The draft resolution also finds that the IAEA's "inability ... to provide assurance that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Security Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security".
The vote comes at a sensitive time as tensions in the region have been rising, with the US State Department announcing on Wednesday that it is drawing down the presence of people who are not deemed essential to operations in the Middle East.
Read moreUS orders personnel out of 'dangerous' Middle East as Iran tensions escalate
It also comes as the US and Iran have been holding talks on Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear programme. Oman's foreign minister said earlier Thursday that a sixth round of negotiations will be held in his country on Sunday.
The draft resolution makes a direct reference to the US-Iran talks, stressing its "support for a diplomatic solution to the problems posed by the Iranian nuclear programme, including the talks between the United States and Iran, leading to an agreement that addresses all international concerns related to Iran’s nuclear activities, encouraging all parties to constructively engage in diplomacy".
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
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