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U.N. to Send Strong Signal on Iran, U.S. Says
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said yesterday that the U.N. Security Council is prepared to send a “strong and clear signal” to Iran over its controversial nuclear work, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 16). After meeting informally yesterday, the 15 Security Council members were to meet today for their first formal session on Iran. Senior officials from the council’s five permanent members plus Germany are scheduled convene Monday. France and the United Kingdom plan to craft a draft text on Iran and present it to the council at today’s meeting, diplomats said. “I would describe today’s meetings as the best we’ve had so far,” Bolton said after the meeting yesterday. “The mood of the discussion is certainly in the direction of a strong and clear signal to Iran on the part of the Security Council.” Bolton said the top diplomats would talk Monday about what steps to take after the first council action. Diplomats will try to formulate a “clear strategy.” Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Konstantin Dolgov told AP. Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya emphasized that disagreements persist. “I think the differences are still there,” he said. “There are some common points but there are also some differences” (Nick Wadhams, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 17). Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday criticized the push for quick Security Council action over the crisis, the Financial Times reported. A Western plan to call for the International Atomic Energy Agency to report on Tehran’s compliance with its nuclear demands within 14 days was “not very feasible,” Lavrov told the Times. Lavrov warned against hastily transferring complete management of the issue from the agency to the council, saying that such an approach would create a “highly politicized” environment. “We would not like to see the situation where the value of the professional agencies would be underestimated … at the expense of us getting to the bottom of the facts,” he said. “I don’t approve of what the Iranian side is doing. The quite arrogant statements don’t help create the necessary business-like atmosphere for the IAEA to finalize its work,” Lavrov added (Wagstyl/Buckley, Financial Times, March 17). U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that discussions with Tehran on stabilizing Iraq could prove useful, AP reported. “This isn’t a negotiation of some kind,” Rice said. “If we found it useful to exchange information we’ll talk, and if we do it will be about Iraq.” Iran yesterday unexpectedly announced that it was open to direct talks with the United States over Iraq, according to AP (Anne Gearan, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, March 17). However, Washington said there would be no bilateral nuclear talks, AFP reported yesterday. “The nuclear issue is being discussed at the United Nations among diplomats of the Security Council,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. “That’s a separate issue” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 16).
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