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U.S., EU Step Back From Push to Refer Iran to Security Council
Diplomats and officials said the United States and the Europe Union do not plan to push to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors later this week, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 18). Diplomats and European Union and U.S. officials said the referral of Iran to the Security Council is unlikely. A U.S. official said building criticism of the Iraq War caused the White House to wait and build an international consensus on how to handle Iran rather than face a diplomatic setback. Diplomats and officials said the United States has begun drafting a resolution setting a timetable for Iran to accept the Russian plan or face referral to the Security Council. However, these officials doubt this resolution would be introduced at this week’s meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board. Instead, a statement criticizing Tehran’s reluctance to cooperate with the agency probe into its nuclear program is likely (George Jahn, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Nov. 21). The change in the U.S. and European Union’s position comes as Iran yesterday dismissed an agency report that it has received documents that could aid efforts to produce a nuclear weapon, the Associated Press reported. “This is just a media speculation,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. “It is baseless.” In its latest report on Iran released Friday, the agency revealed that Tehran had turned over documents relating to the shaping of uranium for a nuclear weapon. Nations have also been worried by Iran’s announcement that it has restarted uranium conversion and that Tehran has not met IAEA demands on its nuclear program, AP reported (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press I/Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier, Nov. 20). However, Iran on Saturday said that delivering the document to the U.N. nuclear watchdog was a sign of openness about its nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported. The document obtained from the former nuclear network of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan contains “procedural requirements for ... the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms, according to the IAEA report. The IAEA report “does not reveal a breach of trust in this matter, but settles for mentioning the complete transparence of Iran,” said Mohammad Saeedi, vice chairman of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Nov. 19). Meanwhile, Iran’s parliament yesterday ordered the government to block inspections of the country’s nuclear sites if Tehran is referred to U.N. Security Council, the Associated Press reported. The bill received 183 of a possible 197 votes and comes four days before the agency’s Board of Governors convenes to consider the Iranian situation. The bill now goes to Iran’s Guardian Council for expected ratification, according to AP. It is expected to become law, giving Iran’s government more power to resist international calls to permanently halt uranium enrichment. “If Iran's nuclear file is referred or reported to the U.N. Security Council, the government will be required to cancel all voluntary measures it has taken and implement all scientific, research and executive programs to enable the rights of the nation under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,” the bill said, according to Iranian lawmaker Kazem Jalali. Cancellation of these voluntary measures would prevent the agency from conducting in-depth inspections of suspect facilities and would allow Iran to restart uranium enrichment, according to AP (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press III/Yahoo!News, Nov. 21). The European Union today said Iran had “clear obligations” to allow IAEA inspectors to inspect its nuclear facilities, the Associated Press reported. “We will be considering what the Iranian parliament said,” said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. “The government of Iran is a signatory to the nonproliferation treaty. It has got clear obligations. It was declared noncompliant with its obligations, because of its failure to meet various undertakings in the safeguards agreement.” “This is not good news,” Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, said of the Iranian parliament vote. He added that he hopes progress could be made before IAEA meeting (Associated Press II, Nov. 21). Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Asefi said yesterday that Tehran will not give in to IAEA demands to inspect the site of the former Lavizan physics research center unless “concrete proof” is offered to justify the visit, Agence France-Presse reported. Asefi said the IAEA report revealed last week does “not contain any negative points” and that the agency’s probe into Iran’s nuclear program should be closed. “We only work within the framework of the safeguards, and if they come up with concrete proof within the framework of the safeguards and NPT we will consider it,” Asefi said. He added that under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran is not obligated to give inspectors access to sites but has done so as a “confidence-building” measure. “They cannot just say we want to talk to this or that person and keep on dragging out the dossier. They should tell us their aims, and these aims should be towards closing the case,” Asefi said (Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Nov. 20). A source with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said yesterday that uranium conversion at Isfahan is expected soon to stop temporarily, Agence France-Presse reported. The source said that the work stoppage would not be due to international pressure but is needed to perform maintenance work. “The maintenance work should have taken place in recent weeks, but we decided to keep the plant in operation. The repairs were delayed until after the [upcoming] IAEA meeting to avoid any misinterpretation,” the official said. “The work will last for 15 days, and (conversion) work will resume immediately afterwards” (Agence France-Presse III/IranMania.com, Nov. 20). Meanwhile, communist allies of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are expected to pressure the leader to vote against the referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 16). Prakash Karat, leader of the Communist Party of India, said good relations with Iran must continue in order to protect Indian interests. “If the government decides to vote against Iran, it should be viewed seriously as the focus should be on Indian interests, without succumbing to outside pressures,” he said. Karat last week said he would bring the issue up in parliament is Singh notes to refer Iran to the Security Council. Singh depends on communist support in parliament, according to AP (Ashok Sharma, Associated Press IV, Nov. 20).
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