Head of U.N. watchdog decries ‘decrease in interest’ over Iran’s nuclear advances

"The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Monday he was concerned the international community was losing interest in holding Iran to account over its advancing nuclear program.

The comments follow an easing tensions between Iran and the United States, who announced a prisoner swap last month.

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in confidential reports seen by AFP that Iran had made ‘no progress’ on several outstanding nuclear issues.

These include reinstalling IAEA monitoring cameras Tehran had removed from its known nuclear sites, or explaining the presence in Iran of uranium particles enriched to near weapons-grade level.

IAEA director general Raphael Grossi said on Monday he had noticed a ‘decrease in interest’ from IAEA member states, without naming them.

‘There is a certain routinization of what is going on there (in Iran) and I am concerned about this, because the issues are as valid today as they were before,’ he told reporters on the first day of the IAEA board of governors’ meeting in Vienna.

Diplomatic sources say the United States and the so-called E3 group — France, Germany and the United Kingdom — have no plan this week to censure Iran for its lack of cooperation with the IAEA..."