(12 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dubai, UAE – 12 June 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press:
"The board of governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency have passed a resolution sharply criticizing Iran over its obligations to that UN nuclear watchdog. Now, Iran has already retaliated. They say they’re going to build a third site in the country to enrich uranium, and they’re also going to swap out some of the older centrifuges at an underground facility for more advanced ones that can more rapidly enrich uranium. All this comes as there’s just been months of tensions in the region over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. They now enrich uranium up to 60%, which is a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels. They also have a stockpile that could allow Iran, should it choose to do so, to build multiple nuclear weapons. Now Iran has long insisted that its program is peaceful, but Western countries and the IAEA have said that Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program as recently as 2003. Now, in the last 24 hours, we’ve also seen the US make some moves in the region. They have pulled some diplomats out of US Embassy Baghdad. They’ve also said that dependents of US troops in the regional can voluntarily evacuate from the area. This is all over these Iran tensions that also have seen the British military warn that there could be attacks on shipping in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. Now, one wild card in this is Israel. Israel has long said it’s not going to allow Iran to get the ability to have nuclear weapons, and there have been some warnings that Israel could launch airstrikes against Iran. Given this, it does raise those tensions. It does raise questions about how the US And Israel are going to respond. Iran and the United States are due to have talks this weekend in Oman over the nuclear program, and now the stakes are even higher.”
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s board of governors on Thursday formally found that Iran isn’t complying with its nuclear obligations for the first time in 20 years, a move that could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort to restore United Nations sanctions on Tehran later this year.
Iran reacted immediately, saying it will establish a new enrichment facility “in a secure location” and that “other measures are also being planned.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice but to respond to this political resolution,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in a joint statement.
Nineteen countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board, which represents the agency’s member nations, voted for the resolution, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-doors vote.
Russia, China and Burkina Faso opposed it, 11 abstained and two did not vote.
In the draft resolution seen by The Associated Press, the board of governors renews a call on Iran to provide answers “without delay” in a long-running investigation into uranium traces found at several locations that Tehran has failed to declare as nuclear sites.
Western officials suspect that the uranium traces could provide evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003.
The resolution was put forward by France, the U.K., Germany and the United States.
AP video shot byBassam Hatoum
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