VIENNA—Once a vociferous critic of Iran’s alleged work on nuclear arms, the U.S. is now joining five other world powers in urging the U.N. atomic agency to close the books on a protracted probe of the claims, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
The call is contained in a confidential draft resolution prepared for next week’s meeting of the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency and shared Monday with all of those member nations.
The push by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to end the investigation is being launched despite a report last week from IAEA chief Yukiya Amano concluding that Tehran did work related to nuclear arms up to 2009. And it comes after a near decade of heated U.S. accusations of such Iranian activities—charges Tehran denies.
But the call for closure makes sense as the six move from focusing on past activities that will likely forever remain murky and push for enactment of a July 14 deal with Iran mandating enforceable future constraints on nuclear technologies that Tehran could use to make such weapons.
The board must formally agree to end the probe and the resolution from the U.S. and its five partners is meant to achieve that aim.
