The UN nuclear watchdog’s board of governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations on Thursday and Tehran announced countermeasures, as an Iranian official said a “friendly country” had warned it of a potential Israeli attack.
US and Iranian officials will hold a sixth round of talks on Tehran’s accelerating uranium enrichment programme in Oman on Sunday, the Omani foreign minister said on Thursday.
But security fears have risen since US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday that American personnel were being moved out of the region because “it could be a dangerous place” and that Tehran would not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.
Washington is concerned that Israel could take military action against Iran in coming days, US officials said, despite Mr Trump’s recent warning to Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu against such a strike while US diplomacy continues with Tehran.
Mr Trump on Thursday said he would love to avoid a conflict with Iran, adding that a strike by Israel could happen but that he would not want to say that it is imminent.
“I’d love to avoid the conflict,” he told reporters at a White House event. “Iran’s going to have to negotiate a little bit tougher, meaning they’re going to have to give us something they’re not willing to give us right now.”
US intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations to hit Iran’s nuclear installations. But one US official said there was no sign that Israel had made a final decision.
Security in the Middle East has already been destabilised by spillover effects of the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The US president has threatened to bomb Iran if the nuclear talks do not yield a deal and said he has become less confident Tehran will agree to stop enriching uranium. Iran wants a lifting of US sanctions imposed on it since 2018.
At a White House event on Thursday, Mr Trump expressed frustration that oil prices had risen amid supply concerns arising from potential conflict in the Middle East.
With Washington offering little explanation for its security concerns, some foreign diplomats suggested that the evacuation of personnel, and US officials anonymously raising the spectre of an Israel attack on Iran, could be a ploy to ratchet up pressure on Tehran for concessions at the negotiating table.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said that even if the country’s nuclear facilities were destroyed by bombs, they would be rebuilt, state media reported on Thursday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years, raising the prospect of reporting it to the UN security council.
The step is the culmination of a series of stand-offs between the IAEA and Iran since Mr Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that accord unravelled.
An IAEA official said Iran had responded to the 35-country board’s declaration by informing the UN watchdog that it plans to open a third uranium enrichment plant.
Enrichment can be used to produce uranium for reactor fuel or, at higher levels of refinement, for atomic bombs. Iran says its nuclear energy programme is only for peaceful purposes.
After the IAEA decision, the Israeli foreign ministry said Tehran’s actions undermined the global Non-Proliferation Treaty and posed an imminent threat to regional and international security and stability.
Iran is a signatory to the NPT. Israel is not, and is believed to have the Middle East’s sole nuclear arsenal.
Israeli strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer and Mossad head David Barnea will go to Oman to meet US special envoy Steve Witkoff before the US-Iran talks in another attempt to clarify Israel’s position, Israeli media reported.
The IAEA’s ruling will add to the “complexity” of Sunday’s nuclear talks with the US, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said, according to state media. “However, we will be in Muscat ... to defend the rights of the Iranian nation,” he added.
