US to back IAEA resolution in spite of Iranian resistance

The US said on Thursday (June 2) that it will back a European resolution urging Iran to cooperate with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog. USA's stand has come despite Iranian warnings that such a move would scuttle diplomcay. b

"We can confirm that we plan to join the UK, France and Germany in seeking a resolution focused on the need for Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA," State Department spokesman Ned Price said ahead of a meeting next week.

"It is essential that Iran does fully comply with its legally binding obligations" under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Price told reporters.

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Talks to revive 2015 nuclear deal with Iran are in a stalemate. The deal, struck in 2015, put limitations on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for relief from sanctions. Former US president Donald Trump took the US out of the deal and reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic republic.

President Joe Biden backs a return to the agreement and his administration has previously steered clear of condemning Iran at the IAEA, with the Europeans also backing down.

But the US negotiator on Iran has said that chances are dimming for an agreement despite more than a year of indirect talks.

The Biden administration has voiced willingness to remove sweeping sanctions imposed by Trump in exchange for Iran's returning to full compliance.

But Iran has also pressed for the removal of the clerical state's elite Revolutionary Guards from a terrorism blacklist, a step that Biden has rejected.

The latest IAEA report said Iran has not clarified questions about the presence of nuclear material found at three undeclared sites.

(With inputs from agencies)

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