The board of governors at the UN's nuclear watchdog has passed a resolution critical of Iran and demanding access to two old nuclear sites, diplomatic sources said Friday.
The first of its kind since 2012, the resolution calls on Tehran to provide inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with access to two sites in Iran in order to clarify whether undeclared nuclear activity took place there in the early 2000s. Iran's allies China and Russia opposed the measure.
The text of the resolution submitted by France, Britain and Germany and obtained by Reuters says the board "calls on Iran to fully cooperate with the Agency and satisfy the Agency's requests without any further delay, including by providing prompt access to the locations specified by the Agency."
Iran has been blocking access to the sites for months.
Earlier this week Iran warned that such a resolution would be "counterproductive" and that it would take "appropriate measures" in response.
Even though the sites in question are not thought to be directly relevant to Iran's current nuclear program, the agency says it needs to know if activities going back almost two decades have been properly declared and all materials accounted for.
Despite the row over the two sites, the IAEA says it still has the access it needs to inspect Iran's declared nuclear facilities, as the agency is mandated to do under the landmark deal between Iran and world powers reached in 2015.
However, the latest row comes as that deal continues to unravel, with Iran continuing to breach the limits on nuclear activity in the accord in retaliation for the United States' withdrawal from it and reimposition of sanctions.
The nuclear deal drew a line under what the IAEA and US intelligence services believe was a covert, coordinated atomic weapons program halted in 2003. But Israel's seizure of what is calls part of an "archive" of Iran's past work appears to have yielded new clues on old activities.
Iran has suggested the IAEA is seeking access based on the Israeli information, which it argues is inadmissible. It also says the IAEA file on its old activities has been closed.
Britain, France and Germany will on Friday define their Iran strategy for the coming months amid talks at the UN and violations by Tehran of a 2015 nuclear deal, France's foreign ministry said.
Under Iran's deal with world powers to accept limits to its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions, a UN weapons embargo is due to expire in October. The United States, which exited the deal in 2018, says it wants to extend the embargo.
If the UN Security Council does not extend the embargo, Washington has threatened to trigger a so-called snapback of all UN sanctions on Iran, using a process outlined in the nuclear deal.
Such a move would be likely to kill the nuclear accord.
"The (foreign) ministers are meeting to see what Europe can do to end these violations by the Iranians, while keeping the deal, but also to discuss how to avoid a snapback in New York," said a European diplomat, according to Reuters.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a in a statement that the ministers, who meet in Berlin, would also discuss Iran's cooperation with the IAEA.
