Iran’s surprise win over US at UN atomic watchdog complicates diplomacy

Iran pulled off something that doesn’t happen very often in multilateral diplomacy: it outmaneuvered the United States at the very institution designed to keep its nuclear ambitions in check. On September 15, Iran was elected to the IAEA General Committee via secret ballot, effectively sidestepping US efforts to block the move. The Iranian mission in Vienna wasted no time framing the result as a rebuke of American unilateralism and a political embarrassment for Washington. A week of diplomatic whiplash The timeline makes this particularly strange. On September 9, the IAEA Board of Governors voted 23-3, with 8 abstentions, to refer Iran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council. That’s the first such referral in two decades, the last one coming back in 2006. The resolution cited concerns about roughly 440 kg of uranium enriched to 60% and flagged the lack of inspector access to sites damaged by prior military strikes. The US, UK, France, and Germany backed the referral. Russia, China, and Niger opposed it. The secret ballot mechanism was triggered specifically to circumvent the kind of open-floor pressure the US could exert. Countries that might publicly align with Washington appare...