Saudi ruler urges action over Iran’s nuclear programme
SAUDI ARABIA urged a “decisive stance” against Iran’s nuclear programme yesterday, the day after the United Nations nuclear watchdog announced the Islamic republic has stockpiled 12 times more enriched uranium than is permitted under a 2015 deal with world powers.
In an annual address to the top government advisory body, King Salman bin Abdulaziz called for “a drastic handling of [Iran’s] efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction and develop its ballistic missiles programme.”
The Islamic republic is “fanning the flames of sectarianism” through its “interference in other countries”, the king said in remarks published early yesterday.
Shia- dominated Iran and Sunnimajority Saudi Arabia are locked in a battle for regional influence, engaging in proxy conflict in Yemen and elsewhere across the Middle East.
The administration of US President Donald Trump, a close Saudi ally, has pursued a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran after Washington unilaterally withdrew from a deal limiting Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Since then Iran has progressively eroded its commitments under the agreement, though it insists the agreement remains “an important achievement of multilateral diplomacy.”
In a report published on Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran stockpiled 2.4 tons of enriched uranium, far above the deal’s 202.8kg limit.
The agency also said I ran had breached the deal by moving a first batch of advanced centrifuges from an above-ground plant at its main uranium enrichment site to an underground one apparently built to withstand airstrikes.
The move was apparently in response to an apparent sabotage attack on Iran’s above- ground centrifuge- building workshop at Natanz in July. The report also noted that inspectors identified nuclear material at an unnamed site in Iran and that Tehran’s explanation was “not technically credible”.
Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, said Tehran had “transparent and extensive cooperation” with the agency.