Trump says an Israeli attack on Iran is not imminent but is concerned it ‘could very well happen’

The flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency flies in front of its headquarters during an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump says an Israeli attack on Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program is not imminent but “could very well happen.”

“I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

Trump added that he remains concerned a “massive conflict” could occur in the Middle East if Iran does not negotiate a deal, but that he continues to urge Tehran to make a deal.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

VIENNA -- The UN nuclear watchdog’s board of governors on Thursday formally found that Iran isn’t complying with its nuclear obligations for the first time in 20 years, a move that could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort to restore United Nations sanctions on Tehran later this year.

Iran reacted immediately, saying it will establish a new enrichment facility “in a secure location” and that “other measures are also being planned.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice but to respond to this political resolution,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in a joint statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump previously warned that Israel or America could carry out airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations failed -- and some American personnel and their families have begun leaving the region over the tensions, which come ahead of a new round of Iran-U.S. talks Sunday in Oman. In Israel, the U.S. Embassy ordered American government employees and their families to remain in the Tel Aviv area over security concerns.

Nineteen countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board, which represents the agency’s member nations, voted for the resolution, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-doors vote.

Russia, China and Burkina Faso opposed it, 11 abstained and two did not vote.

In the draft resolution seen by The Associated Press, the board of governors renews a call on Iran to provide answers “without delay” in a long-running investigation into uranium traces found at several locations that Tehran has failed to declare as nuclear sites.

Western officials suspect that the uranium traces could provide further evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003.

The resolution was put forward by France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.

Iran lists steps in retaliation for the IAEA vote

Speaking to Iranian state television after the vote, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said that his agency immediately informed the IAEA of “specific and effective” actions Tehran would take.

“One is the launch of a third secure site” for enrichment, spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. He did not elaborate on the location, but the organization’s chief Mohammad Eslami later described the site as “already built, prepared, and located in a secure and invulnerable place.”

Iran has two underground sites at Fordo and Natanz and has been building tunnels in the mountains near Natanz since suspected Israeli sabotage attacks targeted that facility.

The other step would be replacing old centrifuges for advanced ones at Fordo. “The implication of this is that our production of enriched materials will significantly increase,” Kamalvandi said.

According to the draft resolution, “Iran’s many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement.”

Under those obligations, which are part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is legally bound to declare all nuclear material and activities and allow IAEA inspectors to verify that none of it is being diverted from peaceful uses.

The draft resolution also finds that the IAEA’s “inability ... to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Security Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”

The draft resolution made a direct reference to the U.S.-Iran talks, stressing its “support for a diplomatic solution to the problems posed by the Iranian nuclear program, including the talks between the United States and Iran, leading to an agreement that addresses all international concerns related to Iran’s nuclear activities, encouraging all parties to constructively engage in diplomacy.”

Still a chance for Iran to cooperate with IAEA

A senior western diplomat last week described the resolution as a “serious step,” but added that western nations are “not closing the door to diplomacy on this issue.” However, if Iran fails to cooperate, an extraordinary IAEA board meeting will likely be held in the summer, during which another resolution could get passed that will refer the issue to the Security Council, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

The three European nations have repeatedly threatened in the past to reinstate, or “snapback,” sanctions that have been lifted under the original 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Iran does not provide “technically credible” answers to the UN nuclear watchdog’s questions.

In a joint statement to the IAEA board of governors, the three European nations said that they would “spare no efforts to work towards a diplomatic solution” but added that without a satisfying deal, they would “consider triggering the snapback mechanism to address threats to international peace and security arising from Iran’s nuclear program.”

The authority to reestablish those sanctions by the complaint of any member of the original 2015 nuclear deal expires in October, putting the West on a clock to exert pressure on Tehran over its program before losing that power.

The resolution follows the IAEA’s so-called “comprehensive report” that was circulated among member states last weekend. In the report, the UN nuclear watchdog said that Iran’s cooperation with the agency has “been less than satisfactory” when it comes to uranium traces discovered by agency inspectors at several locations in Iran.

One of the sites became known publicly in 2018, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed it at the United Nations and called it a clandestine nuclear warehouse hidden at a rug-cleaning plant. Iran denied this, but in 2019, IAEA inspectors detected the presence of uranium traces there as well as at two other sites.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, who campaigned on reaching out to the West, struck a harder line after the IAEA vote.

“I don’t know how to cooperate with the outside world to stop them from doing evil acts and let the people live independently in this country,” Pezeshkian said. “We will continue down our own path; we will have enrichment.”

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By Stephanie Liechtenstein And Jon Gambrell

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.