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United States Again Warns of Potential U.N. Security Council Referral of Iran Over Nuclear Work
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday reiterated the warning that Iran could be referred to the U.N. Security Council if it did not cooperate with the European Union’s diplomatic effort to resolve the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear activities, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 28). “There are legs still to this diplomatic process that they’re involved in and we’re trying to support the EU3,” Rice told Fox News yesterday. “But everybody has said — all of us united, including the EU3 — that if the Iranians decide that they won’t take this way out, that the international community has other options like the (U.N.) Security Council,” she said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 28). French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said France, Germany and the United Kingdom plan to put forth a new proposal to Iran at the end of next month, the Associated Press reported (Associated Press, June 28). Some European officials have expressed concern that the election of hard-liner Mahmood Ahmadinejad as Iranian president would endanger the negotiations, but Tehran warned yesterday against prejudging the new administration’s future policies, AFP reported. “We advise the Europeans to beware of making prejudgments and to wait and see the program of Ahmadinejad before they judge,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the Iranian student news agency ISNA. “The Europeans must put forward their ideas by the end of July and if they recognize our rights then everything will end well,” Asefi said (Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, June 28). Meanwhile, Moscow is making plans to assist Tehran in constructing up to six nuclear energy stations, in addition to the facility it is already building at Bushehr, a top Russian official told ITAR-Tass yesterday. “As soon as Iran announces the tender for offers to construct new nuclear reactors, we will participate,” said Russian Atomic Energy Agency head Alexander Rumyantsev (Agence France-Presse III/SpaceWar.com, June 28). Elsewhere, trials of two men charged with nuclear espionage in Iran are scheduled to begin in August, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said yesterday. “The trial session for one of those accused of being a nuclear spy is set for Aug. 2,” Jamal Karimirad was quoted by ISNA as saying. “Proceedings for the other will start on Aug. 20.” Iran last year announced the arrest of 10 people suspected of spying on its nuclear facilities on behalf of the United States and Israel, Reuters reported. A third suspect has already been tried in a special tribunal, but no sentence was handed down, said Karimirad (Reuters/Khaleej Times, June 28).
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