UN nuclear watchdog board censures Iran, which retaliates by announcing a new enrichment site

VIENNA AP The U N nuclear watchdog s board of governors on Thursday formally detected that Iran isn t complying with its nuclear obligations for the first time in years a move that could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort to restore United Nations sanctions on Tehran later this year Iran reacted straightaway saying it will establish a new enrichment facility in a secure location and that other measures are also being planned The Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice but to respond to this political resolution the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Vigor Organization of Iran mentioned in a joint announcement U S President Donald Trump previously warned that Israel or America could carry out airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations failed and specific American personnel and their families have begun leaving the region over the tensions which come ahead of a new round of Iran-U S talks Sunday in Oman In Israel the U S Embassy ordered American ruling body employees and their families to remain in the Tel Aviv area over safeguard concerns Nineteen countries on the International Atomic Potential Agency s board which represents the agency s member nations voted for the resolution according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-doors vote Russia China and Burkina Faso opposed it abstained and two did not vote In the draft resolution seen by The Associated Press the board of governors renews a call on Iran to provide answers without delay in a long-running inquiry into uranium traces detected at several locations that Tehran has failed to declare as nuclear sites Western officers suspect that the uranium traces could provide further evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons operation until The resolution was put forward by France the United Kingdom Germany and the United States Iran lists efforts in retaliation for the IAEA vote Speaking to Iranian state television after the vote the spokesman for the Atomic Vigor Organization of Iran revealed that his agency directly informed the IAEA of specific and effective actions Tehran would take One is the launch of a third secure site for enrichment spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi explained He did not elaborate on the location but the organization s chief Mohammad Eslami later described the site as already built prepared and located in a secure and invulnerable place Iran has two underground sites at Fordo and Natanz and has been building tunnels in the mountains near Natanz since suspected Israeli sabotage attacks targeted that facility The other step would be replacing old centrifuges for advanced ones at Fordo The implication of this is that our production of enriched materials will significantly increase Kamalvandi stated According to the draft resolution Iran s multiple failures to uphold its obligations since to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and pursuits at multiple undeclared locations in Iran constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement Under those obligations which are part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Iran is legally bound to declare all nuclear material and sessions and allow IAEA inspectors to verify that none of it is being diverted from peaceful uses The draft resolution also finds that the IAEA s inability to provide assurance that Iran s nuclear scheme is exclusively peaceful gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Defense Council as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and guard The draft resolution made a direct reference to the U S -Iran talks stressing its promotion for a diplomatic remedy to the problems posed by the Iranian nuclear effort including the talks between the United States and Iran leading to an agreement that addresses all international concerns related to Iran s nuclear exercises encouraging all parties to constructively engage in diplomacy Still a chance for Iran to cooperate with IAEA A senior Western diplomat last week described the resolution as a serious step but added that Western nations are not closing the door to diplomacy on this issue However if Iran fails to cooperate an extraordinary IAEA board meeting will likely be held in the summer during which another resolution could get passed that will refer the issue to the Guard Council the diplomat announced on condition of anonymity because he wasn t authorized to discuss the issue with the media The three European nations have repeatedly threatened in the past to reinstate or snapback sanctions that have been lifted under the original Iran nuclear deal if Iran does not provide technically credible answers to the U N nuclear watchdog s questions The authority to reestablish those sanctions by the complaint of any member of the original nuclear deal expires in October putting the West on a clock to exert pressure on Tehran over its plan before losing that power The resolution comes on heels of the IAEA s so-called comprehensive record that was circulated among member states last weekend In the summary the U N nuclear watchdog disclosed that Iran s cooperation with the agency has been less than satisfactory when it comes to uranium traces discovered by agency inspectors at several locations in Iran One of the sites became known publicly in after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed it at the United Nations and called it a clandestine nuclear warehouse hidden at a rug-cleaning plant Iran denied this but in IAEA inspectors detected the presence of uranium traces there as well as at two other sites