VIENNA: European nations dropped a planned resolution criticising Iran at this week’s meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog, in an attempt to hasten the revival the 2015 nuclear deal, with Tehran hailing Thursday’s move as keeping open the “path of diplomacy”. France, Britain and Germany — known as the E3 — had planned to introduce a resolution at the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors, with the support of the United States, criticising Iran’s suspension of some IAEA inspections.
However, diplomats said the resolution, which had not yet been formally submitted, will now not be put forward.
One source pointed to “initiatives undertaken by (IAEA Director General Rafael) Grossi” and signs of “good faith” on the Iranian side to explain the decision.
Grossi announced on Thursday that Iran had accepted holding a series of meetings with the UN nuclear watchdog in order to “clarify a number of outstanding issues”.
US President Joe Biden has said he is willing to bring the United States back to the landmark 2015 deal, known as the JCPOA.
It has been unravelling since Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2018.
“We took the decision late yesterday as the E3 to put the resolution on hold,” a French source said, referring to “encouraging signs” from the Iranian side. Those signs “would not have been achieved if the threat of the resolution hadn’t been maintained until the end,” the source said, adding that an extraordinary meeting of the IAEA’s board of governors could be called if progress was not maintained.
“Things are going in the right direction,” the diplomat said, adding that they hoped a meeting proposed by the EU of the remaining 2015 participants — Iran, France, Germany, Russia, China and the UK — could take place within two weeks, with Brussels the likely venue.
Iran and Russia welcomed the European decision not to go ahead with a resolution.
“Today’s developments can keep open the path of diplomacy initiated by Iran and the IAEA,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.
“Iran hopes the parties participating in the agreement can seize this opportunity, with serious cooperation, to ensure the full implementation of the agreement by all,” he added.
Moscow’s Ambassador to the IAEA Mikhail Ulyanov said the resolution “could have led to uncontrolled escalation”. “Now diplomacy has a real chance to succeed,” he tweeted.
Grossi said “a technical meeting which will take place in Iran at the beginning of April” as part of a new process aimed at clarifying queries the IAEA has raised about the possible previous presence of nuclear material at undeclared sites.
He said it was his “intention to try to come to a satisfactory outcome for all of this in time for the next regular session of the board of governors” in June. The Iranian ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharib Abadi, tweeted on Thursday that “a glimpse of hope is looming to prevent unnecessary tension”.
“Wisdom prevails,” he added.
Earlier this week a report in the Iranian Vatan-e-Emrouz newspaper also said Tehran had “temporarily suspended the production of uranium metal on the order of the President (Hassan Rouhani)”.
The JCPOA put a 15-year ban on uranium metal production in Iran but Tehran says it has the right to breach this and a series of other JCPOA limits in retaliation for the US withdrawal from the accord and subsequent imposition of sanctions.—AFP
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