Reuters/KL: Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, released a statement on Thursday (November 20) that said a formal letter had been sent to the IAEA ending a cooperation agreement signed in Cairo this year. The move comes in reaction to the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s latest resolution.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday saying Iran must inform it “without delay” of the status of its enriched uranium stock and bombed atomic sites, said diplomats at the closed-door meeting.
The resolution’s purpose was primarily to renew and adjust the IAEA’s mandate to report on aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, but it also stated Iran must quickly provide the IAEA with the answers and access it wants, five months after airstrikes by Israel and the U.S.
Iran, which says its nuclear aims are entirely peaceful, warned before the U.S. and Europe’s top three powers submitted this resolution that if it passed, it would “adversely affect” Tehran’s cooperation with the agency.
The resolution passed with 19 votes in favour, three against and 12 abstentions, diplomats at the meeting in Vienna said. Russia, China and Niger were the countries that opposed it.
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