IAEA board resolution declaring Iran in breach of non-proliferation duties

VIENNA, June 11 (Reuters) - Below are key passages from a four-page resolution on Iran that diplomats said the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors passed on Thursday. The text is still confidential and was seen by Reuters.
The Board of Governors,...
(d) Recalling the Board of Governors' resolutions of 19 June 2020... , of 8 June 2022 ... , of 17 November 2022 ..., of 5 June 2024 ..., and of 21 November 2024 ..., which called upon Iran to fully cooperate with the Agency and decided that it is essential and urgent, in order to ensure verification of the non-diversion of nuclear material, that Iran act to fulfil its legal obligations and, with a view to clarifying all outstanding issues, take all specified actions without delay,
(e) Regretting that despite the above resolutions by the Board and numerous opportunities provided by the Director General since 2019, Iran has failed to provide the co-operation required under its Safeguards Agreement, impeding Agency verification activities, sanitizing locations, and repeatedly failing to provide the Agency with technically credible explanations for the presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin at several undeclared locations in Iran or information on the current location(s) of nuclear material and/or of contaminated equipment, instead stating, inconsistent with the Agency's findings, that it has declared all nuclear material and activities required under its Safeguards Agreement,
(f) Noting the Director General's conclusion ... that Iran did not declare nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three undeclared locations in Iran, specifically, Lavisan-Shian, Varamin, and Turquzabad, and that, because of the lack of technically credible answers by Iran, the Agency is not in a position to determine whether the nuclear material at these undeclared locations in Iran has been consumed, mixed with other declared material, or is still outside of Safeguards,
(g) Noting with concern the Agency's conclusion that these undeclared locations were part of an undeclared, structured programme carried out by Iran until the early 2000s, and that some of these activities used undeclared nuclear material,
(h) Noting with concern the Agency's conclusion that Iran retained unknown nuclear material and/or heavily contaminated equipment, and other assets, arising from the former undeclared structured nuclear programme, at Turquzabad in the period 2009 until 2018, after which items were removed from the location, the whereabouts of which remain unknown,
...
(k) Noting that Iran's failure on numerous occasions to co-operate to facilitate the implementation of Safeguards, while pursuing activities consistent with concealment efforts, including extensive sanitization and the provision of inaccurate explanations, represents a significant impediment to the Agency's ability to clarify and verify Iran's declarations and the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme,
(n) Regretting Iran's failure to provide the Agency with technically credible explanations regarding undeclared nuclear material,
...
(o) Reiterating its concern that Iran has still not provided necessary, full and unambiguous cooperation with the Agency and has not taken the essential and urgent actions as decided by the Board in its June and November 2024 resolutions ... , and
(p) Concerned that the Agency is at an impasse with regards to resolving these issues,
1. Deeply regrets that, despite repeated calls from the Board and many opportunities offered, Iran has failed to co-operate fully with the Agency, as required by its Safeguards Agreement;
...
3. Finds that Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency ...;
4. Finds also consistent with Article 19 of Iran's Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement ... that the Agency is not able to verify that there has been no diversion of nuclear material required to be safeguarded under the Agreement to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices;
5. Finds also that the Director General's inability ... to provide assurance that Iran's nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Security Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, consistent with Article III.B.4 of the Agency's Statute, and expresses its grave concern in this regard;
6. ... The Board will address the timing and content of the report required under Article XII.C of the Agency's Statute and also provided for in Article 19 of Iran's Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, and the notification required under Article III.B.4 of the Agency's Statute;
7. Reaffirms its decision that it is essential and urgent in order to ensure verification of the nondiversion of nuclear material that Iran act to fulfil its legal obligations and, with a view to clarifying all outstanding Safeguards issues, take the following actions without delay:
i. Provide technically credible explanations for the presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin in two undeclared locations in Iran,
ii. Inform the Agency of the current location(s) of the nuclear material and/or of the contaminated equipment,
iii. Provide all information, documentation and answers the Agency requires for that purpose, and
iv. Provide access to locations and material the Agency requires for that purpose, as well as for the taking of samples as deemed appropriate by the Agency;
...
10. Calls upon Iran to urgently remedy its non-compliance with its Safeguards Agreement by taking all steps deemed necessary by the Agency and the Board, so that the Director General can provide the necessary assurances regarding the correctness and completeness of Iran's declarations pursuant to its Safeguards Agreement;
11. Stresses its support for a diplomatic solution to the problems posed by the Iranian nuclear programme, including the talks between the United States and Iran, leading to an agreement that addresses all international concerns related to Iran's nuclear activities, encouraging all parties to constructively engage in diplomacy; ...

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It remains unclear who is behind the operation, though four of the experts believed it was likely to be the Iranian government while the fifth saw Israel as more likely. The messages are deeply eerie and disconcerting for Iranians in the diaspora struggling to contact their families as Israel's offensive targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites pounds Tehran and other cities. Iran has retaliated with hundreds of missiles and drones, and the government has imposed a widespread internet blackout it says is to protect the country. That has blocked average Iranians from getting information from the outside world, and their relatives from being able to reach them. 'I don't know why they're doing this,' said Ellie, whose mother is diabetic, low on insulin and trapped on the outskirts of Tehran. She wants her mother to evacuate the city but cannot communicate that to her. A request for comment sent to the Iranian mission to the U.N. was not immediately answered. Most of the voices speak in English, though at least one spoke Farsi. If the caller tries to talk to it, the voice just continues with its message. A 30-year-old women living in New York, who heard the same message Ellie did, called it 'psychological warfare.' 'Calling your mom and expecting to hear her voice and hearing an AI voice is one of the most scary things I've ever experienced,' she said. 'I can feel it in my body.' And the messages can be bizarre. One woman living in the U.K. desperately called her mom and instead got a voice offering platitudes. 'Thank you for taking the time to listen,' it said, in a recording that she shared with the AP. 'Today, I'd like to share some thoughts with you and share a few things that might resonate in our daily lives. Life is full of unexpected surprises, and these surprises can sometimes bring joy while at other times they challenge us.' Not all Iranians abroad encounter the robotic voice. Some said when they try to call family, the phone just rings and rings. Colin Crowell, a former vice president for Twitter's global policy, said it appeared that Iranian phone companies were diverting the calls to a default message system that does not allow calls to be completed. Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity expert based in the U.S., agreed and said the recordings appeared to be a government measure to thwart hackers, though there was no hard evidence. He said that in the first two days of Israel's campaign, mass voice and text messages were sent to Iranian phones urging the public to gear up for 'emergency conditions.' They aimed to spread panic — similar to mass calls that government opponents made into Iran during the war with Iraq in the 1980s. The voice messages trying to calm people 'fit the pattern of the Iranian government and how in the past it handled emergency situations,' said Rashidi, the director of Texas-based Miaan, a group that reports on digital rights in the Middle East. Mobile phones and landlines ultimately are overseen by Iran's Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. But the country's intelligence services have long been believed to be monitoring conversations. 'It would be hard for anybody else to hack. Of course, it is possible it is Israeli. But I don't think they have an incentive to do this,' said Mehdi Yahyanejad, a tech entrepreneur and internet freedom activist. Marwa Fatafta, Berlin-based policy and advocacy director for digital rights group Access Now, suggested it could be 'a form of psychological warfare by the Israelis.' She said it fits a past pattern by Israel of using extensive direct messaging to Lebanese and Palestinians during campaigns in Gaza and against Hezbollah. 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'Soon enough the only targets left for Washington to hit would be the Iranian regime's leaders, and the United States would again go into the regime-change business – a business in which exceedingly few Americans want to be involved any longer.' The prospect of regime change, perhaps by killing Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which has been raised by Israeli officials (and reportedly vetoed by Trump) is already causing profound alarm in the region. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the senior Iraqi cleric, made a rare intervention, warning of the profound dangers to the region. Another sceptic is Andreas Krieg, an associate professor in the Department of Defence Studies at King's College London, who has worked widely in the Middle East and is doubtful that air power can alone can make the kind of impact being sought by Israel, both in terms of destroying Iran's nuclear knowhow or removing the clerical regime. 'It's not the holy grail. We'd learned the lesson that air power alone doesn't work. And then we learned in Iraq and Afghanistan that even massive numbers of boots on ground doesn't work,' he said. 'What we're seeing is not a strategic approach but one that is operational using air power, and the operational approach is starting the consume the strategic one which is about the political endgame. 'The best Israel can best can hope for is something like the campaign against Hezbollah, which has probably delivered a short-lived success, in that it was very successful in degrading Hezbollah's network. 'Iran is very similar in that its defence strategy is built around a decentralised mosaic. Decapitation doesn't work against that kind of network. You can take out key nodes, but the best [Israel] can hope for in killing Khamenei would be to trigger the succession crisis which in any case had been anticipated.' 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Writing in his book Waging Modern War, in the aftermath of the Nato air campaign in Kosovo in 1999 – seen as one of the more successful uses of air power – the organisation's former supreme allied commander Wesley Clark, described the campaign as having one objective – to force the Serbs to the negotiating table. With contacts now re-established with Iranian negotiators, including talks in Geneva on Friday with European countries, Trump himself has suggested there is more time for diplomacy to run. Even if Iran is forced to a nuclear deal, Israel may find it comes with heavy hidden costs, not least the potential for survival of a clerical regime with every reason to be even more hostile to Israel and Israelis, and the limitations of Israeli military power, perhaps, exposed. 'If Khamenei has the sense to step back, if America doesn't come in,' says Dodge, 'then Israel has stuck its finger in a hornets' nest.'

Reuters

42 minutes ago

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Cyprus arrests individual on suspicion of terror-related plot, police say

NICOSIA, June 21 (Reuters) - Police in Cyprus have arrested an individual on suspicion of terror-related offences and espionage, authorities said on Saturday. The individual appeared before a district court on Saturday, which ordered an eight-day detention pending inquiries. No further details would be issued, police said, citing national security. Cyprus lies very close to the Middle East and has in recent days been used as a transit point for people either leaving or going to the region amid a conflict between regional foes Israel and Iran. Terror-related offences on the island are very rare.