Doubts surrounding Iran's nuclear-energy program continue to mount. Last week, the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution condemning Iran's failure to come clean about its nuclear plans and urging greater cooperation with the nuclear watchdog. The next steps are vitally important for the future of the nuclear nonproliferation regime: The failure to challenge Tehran's continuing defiance could prove to be a last, fatal blow to the credibility of the IAEA.
Iran has long been accused of harboring nuclear-weapons ambitions. It insists that it is only interested in developing nuclear energy. Last year, information supplied by antigovernment exiles exposed secret Iranian facilities that were said to be linked to a clandestine weapons program. The discovery of traces of enriched uranium on equipment intensified concern; the traces were reportedly of weapons grade, and there were physical discrepancies between Iran's accounting for the materials and the evidence. Suspicions focused on the "one-stop shop" for proliferation run by Pakistan's A.Q. Khan. Facing international sanction, the Tehran government in October agreed to suspend uranium-enrichment operations as a confidence-building gesture. Enrichment is not prima facie evidence of a bomb program, but it is a crucial step in the process.
Tehran also agreed to sign the Additional Protocols to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), whose provisions allow tougher inspections of nuclear facilities and could go a long way to end suspicions. The terms of that agreement were almost immediately contested. In November, the IAEA board concluded that there was no evidence of a nuclear-weapons program, but condemned Iran for covering up parts of the nuclear program.