The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) plans to formally rebuke Iran for failing to provide access to one or more sites related to its nuclear program, diplomats familiar with the agency said on Monday.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog issues quarterly updates on Iran’s atomic program; the next report is due on Tuesday,
But for the first time since the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 nations went into effect, the IAEA will also issue a separate report on the same day pointing out Tehran’s lack of cooperation in general and failure to provide access, reported Reuters.
“The general message is: There’s a new sheriff in town,” a diplomat from a country on the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors said, referring to new IAEA chief Rafael Grossi of Argentina, who was elected in October with U.S. support, the report said.
The IAEA is seeking access to at least one site mentioned in the trove that Israel revealed in 2018, according to the report.
“The second report will be on safeguards issues linked to sites that the IAEA did not get access to. We know of two cases, but we don’t know whether the IAEA will put both in (the report),” a European diplomat was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Other diplomats said that there would be at least one site mentioned in the report in connection with the archive discovered by Israel.
Iran has taken a series of steps away from its commitments under the JCPOA in response to Washington’s withdrawal from the deal in May 2018 and the reimposition of sanctions shortly thereafter.
