Transcription
We're going to begin with breaking news from Vienna, where the UN nuclear watchdogs passed a resolution that says Iran has failed to comply with its nuclear safeguard obligations. It's the first such resolution the International Atomic Energy Agency has adopted in almost 20 years. It was put forward by France, the UK, and Germany, and it passed with 19 votes in favor, three against, and 11 abstensions. Iran's condemned the resolution, calling it a political decision without technical or legal foundations.
Want to give you a closer look at the resolution that's been passed by the IAEA. It states that Iran has failed to cooperate with the agency's safeguards agreement. It says Iran has sanitized locations, impeded verification activities, and provided inaccurate explanations. It also notes that Iran has failed to provide credible explanations for the presence of uranium particles found at three undeclared locations. Two are near Thran and one inside the city. And it says Iran conducted undeclared activity at one site between 2009 and 2018.
Hashamakabar is joining me now live from Vienna. Hasham, you broke that news uh just an hour or so ago. Tell us about the significance of this.
First time in 20 years that a ruling like this has been put in place. Very significant major political development with the international uh atomic energy agency saying that Iran has been in breach of its uh comprehensive safeguards agreements when it comes to non-proliferation of its program. And this is quite significant because this is the first time in 20 years that it happens and now the agency says that the that Iran has not been transparent about two key components of its uh of its program. First of all, the traces of uranium that were found by international inspectors in secret locations. And this is one of the reasons why the the the resolution was very strong in its wording. They said we bumped into particles in secret locations, which means they were being operating for quite some time. And when the Iranians discovered we were going to those places, they tempered with the with the with the evidence there. This explains the term sanitization that has been used by the the resolution.
Number two, they say we need to go to those places and we need the Iranians to give us an indication. We have to see the evidence that that material that was used there, particularly contaminated equipment or nuclear material, we have to see it. If they mixed it with something else, we need to see proof of that. If they are using it in a parallel program underground, we have to have it. One, two, Turkosabad is one of the those locations where they believe from 2009 to 2018 Iran was operating a program. Then they discovered traces of uranium and suddenly all the equipments there disappeared. They want to have access to those equipment. Number two, they say there is absolutely no logical explanation to the fact that you are the only country on earth. You don't have nuclear program weapons but the the the amount of enriched uranium that you have is massive, very close to the level where you could uh have nuclear bombs. Now the consensus here at the international atomic energy agency is that 400 kg are already purified at a level of 60%. The Iranians need to refine it just to 90% to get to the weapons grade level. I asked someone here how much time does it take? He said it could be just few weeks. And then when I said if you have that and if you want to deise the nuclear head along with the trigger initiator and the explosive devices, how much time does it take? He said few months, no more than 5 months. And this explains the sense of urgency that the international community has decided to come up with when it comes to this agreement, this resolution, the strongest so far blaming Iran for not being transparent with the international community.
Hasham, we heard earlier on from Iran's ambassador to the IAEA very strongly refuting the allegations that were made in that resolution. Nevertheless, as you were telling us before, there's a very short window, isn't there, for Iran to respond should it choose to do so.
Yeah. Readafi was very angry. Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency. And this is exactly what we heard was his statement inside the board of governors. He was furious when this he saw the E3 countries, Germany, France and the UK along with the United States of America is making statements that were very strong against Iran. and he said that this is politically motivated and that uh the the international community should leave the technical aspect to the experts in both in Taharan and the IAA to discuss. Now we are likely to hear from senior Iranian officials about this and this explains why Jafi didn't want to answer questions from the media. But what is I I I asked western countries uh who were instrumental in putting together that draft that resolution with the wording that you saw about what is it that which you expect from the Iranians and he said one of them said not really very much because will the Iranians allow IAEA's inspectors into secret locations? Will they put a break on their enrichment program? Will they tell us exactly what happened to the contaminated nuclear material that they have been operating in secret locations? If we discovered three locations like Narivan, Marov and Liisan Shian, it could be an indication that there were many many other secret locations that are still there which we don't have access to and Iran has been saying in the past there is a limit to what we can offer and why we are working cooperating with you. You have to respect our national sovereignty. So unless there is a major diplomatic breakthrough and I have to tell you the sentiment in Vienna they don't believe there will be such thing as a diplomatic breakthrough. It looks like we are moving towards more sanctions which could be triggered in the upcoming weeks before the terms of the GCPO mandate expires in October. And this is why France, the UK and Germany are working together to trigger this now back mechanism which was part of the JCPO which and which stated clearly that if Iran was to be found in violation of its commitments with the international community, all the sanctions that existed before 2015 will be reimposed. There's only one thing, one particular detail. Someone I spoke with yesterday, he said, "I'm just surprised how did someone such as former Iranian foreign minister Jawad Zarif, who was instrumental in putting together this agreement, missed a crucial point, which is when we are going to trigger the mechanism, we made it clear in the past, no country had the right to use its veto because they were pretty much concerned that Russia could step in and say no, you cannot reimpose those sanctions." Today, according to that term of the same agreement signed by the Iranians, you have the right to trigger the sanctions without fear that it could be blocked by any V2 holding country, which is now the reason why the Iranians understand that if they lose the momentum, it is moving towards the sanctions. And against the backdrop of this mounting tension in the region, it means even the possibility of a military confrontation. And this is why somebody I spoke with about 2 hours ago coming out of this place, he said, "Look at the region, it could never be the same again." And you should not underestimate what happened today. This is a major major political development. It means that the international community now is moving towards something else when it comes to dealing with the Iranians.
I also understand from sources that I've been talking to that there was a push by some countries in the region in the Middle East to try to put together a new mediation a last-minute approach that would convince the E3 along with the Americans to dilute the content of the resolution, invite the Americans to go to Oman and then when they talk they were planning to talk about the potential for an alternative program which is if you don't trust Iran. Okay, take that material, put it into a new uh uh reactor basically in a neighboring country monitored by the United States of America. But with this new resolution, the wigger boom for the Iranians is more limited than ever since the start of the CP the C the comprehensive safeguards agreement in 2003. And this explains the sense of urgency, the anxiety that we're seeing from the Iranians and the and the pressure that the Europeans along with the Americans are putting now on Tahan.
Hasham, we appreciate you bringing breaking that down for us, Hashimabara, their correspondent in Vienna.
Well, let's listen to the reaction from Iran's ambassador to the IAEA: "Is inconsistent with the principle of objectivity, impartiality, professionalism that underpin the AY's mandate. While manipulating the platform of the board, E3 and US have made significant efforts to prioritize narrow political interests and submitted draft resolution. The interpretation put forward by the US N3 concerning the AY's functions and commitments of members says under the comprehensive safeguard agreement is deeply concerning."
Asi is live in Tehran. um Iran's ambassador to the IAEA there making his anger at the upholding of this resolution very clear. Uh what is likely do we think uh to be Iran's next step in this?
uh well actually the strong tone that we heard from him is echoed by other responses that so far we have heard from Thran ahead of the session in which this uh resolution was adopted and also after that we've got this statement joint statement that came out from Iran's ministry of foreign affairs as well as the atmic organization of the country saying that it is strongly criticizing this resolution being adopted drafted by Americans and three European countries. Also in this statement they they have criticized the politicized use of uh I politicized use of these countries for IAA and also saying that they have resorted to claims dating back to 25 years ago to put force this resolution to be adopted. But most importantly when we speak about the possible responses we heard a lot from the Iranian sides from the Iranian officials indeed in this regard when it comes to this particular joint statement when it comes to the spokesperson of Iran's atomic organization uh we heard this statements we they we said we were told that they are planning to launch a new enrichment center and behind the spokesperson of the nuclear organization ation of the country said that it's going to be a third uh let's say enrichment center that is going to be established also as one of the first preliminary responses to this resolution that was very recently adopted. Iran is saying that it's going to replace first generation machines at Fordo uh enrichment plant with the latest sixth generation highly advanced machines. That means and as spokesperson for the organization, the nuclear organization said, quote unquote, Iran is going to uh further enrich its uh is going to considerably enrich its uh material nuclear enriched material and that means that there is going to be new policies down the road. Also the spokesperson for the agency again quote unquote said that this resolution will not have any particular result because again quote unquote we count on our international friends at United Nations Security Council. That's a clear reference to the possibility of further sanctions for Iranians specifically with respect to this resolution being adopted. As you know, it paves the way for a possible triggering of a snapback mechanism. And based on the joint comprehensive plan of action JCPOA which was signed and sealed back in 2015, if one of these countries decide to activate this mechanism, there is going to be a reimposition of tough sanctions for Iran, a country that is still dealing with pressure of sanctions in a crippled economy under this circumstance. And let's keep in mind specifically with regard to the talks uh underway between Iran and the United States and next round of which is scheduled for Sunday. There's going to be a huge impact after this resolution was adopted. Not only for the trajectory of these talks, but also when it comes to Iran's nuclear policies, when it comes to Iran's foreign policy, and when it comes to Iran's talks with Europeans, there is going to be a significant impact out there. As Hashim previously mentioned, this is an unprecedented critically important event that is going to have further consequences down the road for further developments. We are closely following the reactions from the Iranian side. As they have said, they have planned a range of reactions which is not necessarily limited to diplomatic sphere. The deputy foreign minister of the country Kazam Garibadik yesterday mentioned that there are practical technical responses that Iran has prepared in case this resolution is adopted and now it is adopted. We're waiting to see what reactions are further going to come from the Iranian side.
To thank you very much indeed for bringing that all those details down for us. I know we're going to be coming back to you to discuss it more in the coming hours. To Assad live for us in Tehran. Thank you very much indeed. Make sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest news from Alazer.