IAEA headquarters
IAEA headquartersiStock

The United States, Britain, France and Germany have submitted a motion to the UN nuclear watchdog's board censuring Iran over its lack of cooperation with the agency, two diplomats said Tuesday, according to AFP.

The resolution calling on Iran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) comes after a report by the agency concluded there had been "no progress" in a long-standing probe into undeclared nuclear material in Iran.

In the IAEA report, its Director General Rafael Grossi said he is “seriously concerned” that Iran has still not engaged on the agency’s probe into man-made uranium particles found at three undeclared sites in the country.

The issue has become a key sticking point in the talks on a revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The "resolution has been submitted tonight", a European diplomat told AFP. A second diplomat confirmed the move.

The draft text seen by AFP underscored that it was "essential and urgent" for Iran to "act to fulfil its legal obligations".

A similar resolution criticizing Iran was adopted at the IAEA's June meeting, with only China and Russia voting against it.

At the time, the Islamic Republic denounced the motion as "political" and responded to it by removing surveillance cameras and other equipment from its nuclear facilities.

The resolution, which will be discussed and voted on during this week's quarterly meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors, comes as the talks on a revival of the 2015 deal remain stalled.

Iran in September announced it had submitted its comments to the US response to the European Union’s draft for reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

While Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at the time that Iran’s response was prepared based on a constructive approach, a senior Biden administration official said the Iranian response "is not at all encouraging.”

A US official later said that the efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have “hit a wall” because of Iran's insistence on the closure of the UN nuclear watchdog's investigations.

On Monday, the US envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, said Iran's crackdown on protesters and the sale of drones to Russia have turned the United States' focus away from reviving the nuclear deal.

Speaking to reporters in Paris, Malley insisted that the United States would leave the door open to resume diplomacy "when and if" the time came, but stated that for now Washington would continue a policy of sanctions and pressure.