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IAEA Meeting on Iran to Enter Third Day
The governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency has postponed resuming its emergency meeting on Iran’s nuclear activities, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Feb. 2). The conference is expected to reconvene tomorrow, giving the European Union time to discuss with developing states the text of a draft resolution to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council, diplomats in Vienna said (Reuters, Feb. 3). U.S. and European delegates to the agency today worked to boost support for the resolution, the Associated Press reported. Diplomats said the text was almost certain to be adopted. However, because sponsors wanted to gain as much support as possible among board members, diplomats said the meeting would continue into the weekend. After China and Russia agreed Monday to join the other three permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — France, the Unites Kingdom and the United States — in supporting referral, opposition to the move has dwindled to a few nations. Opponents include Cuba, Spain and Venezuela, while India is expected to support the resolution, the Associated Press reported. “There’s a solid majority in favor of reporting,” chief U.S. delegate to the agency Gregory Schulte told AP on Wednesday (George Jahn, Associated Press I/ABCNews.com, Feb. 3). Russia’s top envoy to the agency, Grigory Berdennikov, said his country now backs sending a “serious signal” to Tehran and supported the draft resolution as written, Knight Ridder reported today. China’s vote in favor of the draft also remained likely, according to Knight Ridder, though its delegate reiterated Beijing’s position that diplomacy remains the best tactic. “China hopes Iran resumes suspension of all nuclear research and development and resumes talks with the European Union as soon as possible,” Ambassador Wu Hailong said. “In the meantime, we also hope the other side keeps calm and demonstrates patience and flexibility so as to avoid complicating the situation” (Hannah Allam, Knight Ridder, Feb. 3). The votes of the 16 board members from the Nonaligned Movement remained in question after yesterday’s debate, the Washington Post reported today. The bloc said in a statement read by Malaysian Ambassador Rajmah Hussain that a second IAEA on referral in March would be legally necessary. That could indicate the nations are prepared to support the resolution this week as a first step on sending the case to the Security Council (John Ward Anderson, Washington Post, Feb. 3). Iran warned today it might end its consideration of Moscow’s compromise proposal to enrich Iran’s uranium in Russia if it is reported to the Security Council, AP reported. In case of referral, “there will be no way we can continue with the Russian proposal,” said Javad Vaidi, deputy head of Iran’s National Security Council. “It means that the U.S. and the EU-3 are intending to kill two issues: first to stop diplomacy and second to kill the Russian proposal,” he said, referring to European powers France, Germany and the United Kingdom. “I advise them not to make a historical mistake,” he said. Meanwhile in Tehran, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani said a Security Council referral would be a “black page” in history. “There can’t be cruelty clearer than this,” said Rafsanjani (George Jahn, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, Feb. 3). In Washington, a U.S. State Department official said yesterday that diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue were far from over. “We have seen encouraging signs over the past several weeks, and in particular over the past few days, of the growing determination of the international community to prevent Iran from succeeding in its quest to produce nuclear weapons,” Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Stephen Rademaker told the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. Rademaker reiterated the Bush administration’s view that Tehran concealed its nuclear activities for almost 20 years because they are not, as Iranian leaders have claimed, strictly peaceful. “An Iranian regime with nuclear weapons is simply unacceptable,” he added. U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), speaking at the same meeting, said that with or without nuclear weapons, the Iranian government “is still the world’s foremost sponsor of terror and a vicious tyrant to its own people.” Brownback yesterday proposed $100 million in U.S. spending in fiscal 2006 for pro-democracy efforts in Iran and an end to World Bank lending to the country. Brownback, co-chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission on human rights, said the diplomatic effort on Iran’s nuclear program is one part of what should be a two-pronged U.S. strategy on Iran, with promoting democracy being the second. However, given the continued high level of U.S. military commitment in neighboring Iraq, he said militarily imposed “regime change” in Iran should not be on any U.S. agenda. “Regime change can happen from within. … I don’t see any viable military options here,” he said. “What I’m talking here is democracy-building, civil society-building and civil disobedience-building ... where people take the power to the streets,” he said. Brownback said Iranian citizens have been imprisoned and killed for challenging their leadership, but “we shouldn’t back away from ... encouraging them” (Marina Malenic, Global Security Newswire, Feb. 3).
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