The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution on Thursday calling on Iran to provide the country with access and information about its nuclear program, as required by UN resolutions.
The vote came a day after the head of the IAEA renewed his call on Tehran to allow inspections of key nuclear facilities attacked by Israel and the United States in June.
Tensions between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog have flared up repeatedly in recent years and were further inflamed after a 12-day war in June that saw Israeli and US attacks on key Iranian nuclear facilities.
Since the war, the agency’s inspectors have not been allowed access to places like Fordo and Natanz that were hit in the strikes, but they have been able to visit other places.
Thursday’s resolution “calls on Iran to comply fully and without delay with its legal obligations under […] UN Security Council resolutions and to extend full and prompt cooperation to the IAEA, including by providing such information and access as the Agency requests,” according to the text.
The vote was passed with 19 in favor, three against and 12 abstentions.
“We have carried out a series of inspections, but we have not been able to go to the attack sites. I hope we will be able to. Indeed, we have to go because this is part of Iran’s obligations,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told reporters on Wednesday, after opening the regular board meeting of the Vienna-based agency.
“I hope we will be able to move in a constructive way.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday night rejected any cooperation with the IAEA “regarding the bombed sites”.
“We cooperate only on nuclear facilities that have not been affected, in accordance with IAEA rules,” he stated on Telegram.
