UN Nuclear Watchdog Reports Iran       09/10 06:08

   The U.N. atomic watchdog's board on Wednesday reported Iran to the U.N. 
Security Council for the first time in 20 years, citing it for failure to 
cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by 
inspectors at undeclared sites.

   VIENNA (AP) -- The U.N. atomic watchdog's board on Wednesday reported Iran 
to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years, citing it for 
failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces 
detected by inspectors at undeclared sites.

   Western officials suspect that the traces could provide evidence that Iran 
had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003. Iran says that it's not 
pursuing nuclear weapons, and that its program is entirely peaceful.

   Reporting Iran to the Security Council opens the country to possible 
sanctions and asset freezes, though such punitive measures are unlikely because 
Iran's allies Russia and China hold veto power on the panel.

   Twenty-three countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency 's 
35-member board of governors voted for Wednesday's resolution at IAEA 
headquarters in Vienna.

   China, Russia and Niger opposed it, while eight countries abstained and one 
didn't vote as it was in arrears, according to diplomats who spoke on condition 
of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-door vote.

   The resolution was put forward by the United States, Britain, France and 
Germany.

   The diplomatic move has been under consideration since June 2025, when the 
IAEA board found Iran officially in noncompliance with its nonproliferation 
obligations because of Tehran's lack of cooperation in the investigation.

   Iran's ambassador to the U.N. in Vienna, Reza Najafi, rejected the 
resolution, describing it as a "political tool" and saying that it ruined 
confidence in the IAEA's "independence, impartiality and credibility."

   He suggested that compliance with any obligation to allow U.N. inspections 
of nuclear sites inside Iran was, in any case, impossible at the moment because 
of the country's continuing war with the U.S. and Israel.

   The U.S. this week destroyed five Iranian oil tankers and Tehran hit back at 
American targets in Jordan, the latest burst of back-and-forth strikes that 
have lurched the sides back toward open hostilities in a more than 6-month-old 
war.

   The draft resolution, which was seen by The Associated Press, requested IAEA 
Director General Rafael Grossi to report the agency's concerns "to the Security 
Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations, in accordance with the 
relevant provisions of the IAEA Statute."

   The resolution also reiterated its call upon Iran "to urgently remedy its 
non-compliance" with previous agreements and to take steps deemed necessary by 
the IAEA to assure "the non-diversion of nuclear material."

   Since Israel and the U.S. struck Iran's nuclear sites during the 12-day war 
in June 2025, Iran hasn't given IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites that 
were affected by the strikes. The IAEA also has been unable to verify the 
status of Iran's stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium since the June bombing.

   Najafi said that airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel made safe access for 
inspectors to Iran's nuclear sites "materially impossible." He said that Iran 
has "neither stopped nor suspended its safeguards obligations," adding that 
"performance is currently impossible under continuing military operations and 
persistent threats."

   Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi echoed that sentiment in an 
post on X.

   "They attack Iran's safeguarded nuclear facilities, disrupt the normal 
verification process, and then use that very disruption as a pretext to pass a 
resolution at the IAEA Board of Governors," he said.

   According to the IAEA, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 
pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity -- a short, technical step away 
from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

   That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should 
it decide to weaponize its program, IAEA chief Grossi warned in an interview 
last year with the AP. He said that it doesn't mean that Iran has such a weapon.