UN Nuclear Watchdog Presses Iran to Reveal Its Uranium Stockpile

The board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.’s nuclear oversight body, approved today (Wednesday) a U.S.-backed resolution instructing Iran to declare how much enriched uranium it still has. The IAEA also demanded that the Iranians allow inspectors to verify the information.

According to the Reuters news agency, 35 representatives from the countries that make up the IAEA board took part in the vote. The text of the resolution, submitted by the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, was approved with 21 votes in favor, three against, and 10 abstentions. The countries that opposed it were Russia, China, and Niger.

The resolution was adopted less than a day after the American strike on Iran, ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump, and in response to Iran’s downing of an American Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.

As previously reported more than once over the past year, Israeli and American attacks destroyed or severely damaged Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities, but the assessment is that some of the enriched uranium, including material close to weapons-grade, survived.

Iran has refused to share what became of the material, and it also has not allowed IAEA inspectors to return to the bombed sites to check. The United States led the resolution, but Iran called it a "cover-up of military aggression," because, according to the Iranians, inspectors had access to the sites before the attacks.