Iran violated a U.N. resolution in October by testing a medium-range ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, a team of sanctions monitors said in a confidential report, even as the U.N. nuclear agency closed the books Tuesday on a decade-long probe of Tehran’s suspected atomic weapons program.
The conclusion of the U.N. Security Council’s panel on Iran about the violation of the test ban is expected to lead to calls for expanding sanctions against Tehran in Washington and some other Western capitals. The White House said Tuesday that it would not rule out sanctions against Tehran over the missile test.
“On the basis of its analysis and findings, the panel concludes that Emad [rocket] launch is a violation by Iran of Paragraph 9 of Security Council Resolution 1929,” the report said.
Reuters on Tuesday reviewed the 10-page report, dated Dec. 11, and went to members of the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee in recent days.
The U.N. report puts the Obama administration in an awkward position because Iran has said that any more sanctions would jeopardize a July 14 nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.
In Congress, lawmakers from both sides are demanding action. Republicans say Iran has clearly violated terms of the deal to ease sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Democrats say the Islamic republic, at the very least, has broken the spirit of the agreement.
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, said ballistic missile testing breaks U.N. resolutions. He called for sanctions to be imposed on anyone deemed to have aided Iran’s missile program.
“This is a challenge on which the United States needs to lead,” Mr. Hoyer said.
Although Democrats chided the president, Republicans went further by saying Mr. Obama was ignoring clear evidence that the deal he struck was being breached.
“Iran is an untrustworthy partner, and ignoring that puts America and the world at risk,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican. “President Obama should listen to Congress and the American people and halt the implementation of this terrible deal immediately.”
Two Republican senators have written to Mr. Obama saying the October test, and another reported missile launch Nov. 21, require action by the administration.
“While your administration has attempted to treat Iran’s ballistic missile program as separate from Iran’s nuclear program, this approach does not withstand scrutiny,” wrote Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Mark Kirk of Illinois. “Iran is developing ICBM capabilities, and the sole purpose of an Iranian ICBM is to enable delivery of a nuclear weapon to the United States.”
They said a failure to hold Iran accountable “will invite more violations from Tehran and further endanger the security of Americans and our allies.”
Meanwhile, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency closed the books Tuesday on its long-running investigation of accusations that Iran worked on atomic arms. Tehran proclaimed that it would implement commitments within weeks to cut back on nuclear programs that could be used to make such weapons.
The probe had to be formally ended as part of the nuclear accord. A consensus of the 35-nation board of the IAEA approved a resolution.
The move means that some questions about the suspected weapons work may never be resolved. Before the resolution’s adoption, IAEA head Yukiya Amano told the board that his investigation couldn’t “reconstruct all the details of activities conducted by Iran in the past.”
At the same time, he repeated an assessment he made last month that Iran worked on “a range of activities relevant” to making nuclear weapons, with coordinated efforts up to 2003 tapering off into scattered activities up to 2009.
Chief Iranian delegate Reza Najafi denied such work, in keeping with his country’s constant line during the protracted probe. In his statement to the board, and then to reporters outside the meeting, he said Tehran’s nuclear activities “have always been for peaceful civilian or conventional military uses.”
Secretary of State John F. Kerry said wrapping up the probe “will in no way preclude the IAEA from investigating if there is reason to believe Iran is pursuing any covert nuclear activities in the future.”
“We will remain intensely focused going forward on the full implementation of the [nuclear accord] in order to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program,” Mr. Kerry said.
He said the probe confirmed that Iran “pursued a coordinated program of nuclear weapons-related activities until 2003 and engaged in certain activities relevant to nuclear weaponization for at least several years beyond that period.”
⦁ Stephen Dinan contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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