Fresh grounds to snap back Iran sanctions and block it from getting a nuclear bomb

The International Atomic Energy Agency just pulled back a veil from Iran’s secretive nuclear plans.And what was revealed is as disturbing as it is unsurprising.The IAEA last week released a long-awaited comprehensive report on Iran’s violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.The report details Tehran’s failure to comply with a nearly eight-year IAEA investigation into the regime’s illicit nuclear-weapons work.It also shows an elaborate Iranian coverup that continues today.When the IAEA’s Board of Governors meets next week, the United States (along with the United Kingdom, France and Germany) plans to seek a resolution finding Iran in formal non-compliance with the NPT — one step away from a referral to the UN Security Council.That is simply not enough.

The West must immediately trigger the process of restoring suspended UN sanctions on Iran.The IAEA report includes new findings about Tehran’s undeclared activities and use of nuclear material at four sites: Lavisan-Shian, Marivan, Turquz-Abad and Varamin.Even though the sites haven’t been in operation for some time, the regulatory body found man-made uranium particles and pieced together evidence that nuclear-weapons experiments and tests had been carried out in violation of safeguards — without the IAEA’s knowledge.The IAEA mentions Iran’s preparation of pilot and production-scale facilities — the former for learning how to build atomic bombs; the latter for churning out a larger nuclear arsenal.Iran was even preparing a “cold test” of a nuclear weapon (a type of simulation with unenriched uranium), one of the last steps before it could certify its weapons functioned as desired.The IAEA says Iran provided unsatisfactory explanations about its activities, delayed timely access to sites, carried out sophisticated sanitization efforts and even stole confidential IAEA documents.Iran refuses to disclose its construction of new nuclear facilities, raising concern about the existence o...