UN watchdog says Iran stonewalling nuclear probe

A United Nations watchdog says that Iran is stonewalling a probe into its past nuclear activities, Reuters reports.

In two reports seen by the news outlet, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it had not made progress on explaining uranium traces found at several old, undeclared sites and getting urgent access to monitoring equipment to keep track of Iran’s nuclear program.

“The Agency’s confidence that it can maintain continuity of knowledge is declining over time and has now significantly further declined,” one of the reports read, according to Reuters.

The report added the agency hasn’t had access to the equipment since May 25 despite needing such access every three months.

“This confidence will continue to decline unless the situation is immediately rectified by Iran,” the first report read.

The second report raised concerns about four locations Iran had not declared, Reuters reported.

“The Director General is increasingly concerned that even after some two years the safeguards issues outlined above in relation to the four locations in Iran not declared to the Agency remain unresolved,” the report stated.

The Hill has reached out to IAEA for comment.

The report comes as the U.S. looks to get Iran to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which former President Trump pulled out of in 2018.

Indirect talks between both parties to reenter the deal have paused as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi takes office, Reuters notes.

IAEA said in a report last month that Iran had increased its uranium purity to 60 percent, nearing weapons-grade levels of purity of 90 percent.

In response to the reports, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA Kazem Gharibabadi said no one could tell Iran to stop its nuclear activities, according to Al Jazeera.

Gharibabadi said a three-month agreement signed in February to prevent some restriction of IAEA’s activities has expired. The agreement had been extended for a month, but he said Iran is not obligated to extend it.