VIENNA: The UN nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation board of governors passed a resolution on Wednesday calling on Iran to step up cooperation with the watchdog and reverse its recent barring of inspectors, despite concerns Tehran would respond with atomic escalation.

Twenty countries voted in favour and two against — Russia and China — with 12 abstentions. It follows up on the last resolution 18 months ago that asked Iran to comply with a years-long International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation into uranium traces found at undeclared sites.

“The need for the board to hold Iran accountable to its legal obligations is long overdue. Iran must urgently, fully and unambiguously cooperate with the agency,” Britain, France and Germany said in a statement on the resolution they proposed.

Since the last resolution, the list of problems the IAEA faces in Iran has grown, and the new text also called on Tehran to address several of those issues.

In September, Iran barred many of the IAEA’s top enrichment experts on the inspection team, which IAEA chief Rafael Grossi called “disproportionate and unprecedented” and a “very serious blow” to the agency’s ability to do its job properly.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2024