New Delhi: India was among the 27 members of the 35-strong IAEA Board of Governors which voted in favour of reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council on Saturday.

In response to questions on India's vote, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs described the resolution as "well-balanced."

"Several amendments suggested by non-aligned countries were accepted by the EU co-sponsors," he said here adding that "while there will be a report to the Security Council, the Iran nuclear issue remains within the purview of the IAEA."

Five steps

The five steps the resolution says are required of Iran are: re-establishing the full and sustained suspension of all uranium enrichment activity, including research; reconsidering the construction of a heavy water moderated research reactor; ratifying and implementing the Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement; in the interim, continuing to act in accordance with that protocol; and implementing "transparency measures ... which extend beyond the formal requirements of the Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol and would include such access to individuals, documentation, dual-use items, certain military-owned workshops, and research and development as the Agency may request in support of its ongoing investigations."

However, official sources told The Hindu that India had worked together with the Non-Aligned Movement group in Vienna to "soften" the resolution by emphasising the continuation of the IAEA oversight despite the referral. The European draft had been vague on this point but the NAM countries wrote into the resolution a line underlining that "the Agency's work on verifying Iran's declarations is ongoing."

Other changes, admittedly minor, pushed by the NAM group were to acknowledge as a "positive step" Iran's decision to place under the IAEA seal a document on the casting of uranium into hemispherical forms; to stress that confidence-building measures such as the suspension of uranium enrichment "are voluntary, and non-legally binding;" and to change an earlier categorical reference to the IAEA "lack[ing] confidence" in Iran's intention to develop a fissile material production capability to the more nuanced and neutral observation that "there is a lack of confidence" in Iran.

Finally, the resolution reiterated IAEA chief Mohammed El-Baradei's observation that Iran is "a special verification case," so as to try and stress that a precedent for other non-nuclear weapon states under the NPT was not being created.

On the broader implications of the vote, the MEA spokesperson said that India's position has been that "confrontation should be avoided and any outstanding issue ought to be resolved through dialogue." The resolution "has won a period of six weeks, before the March IAEA Board Meeting, for diplomatic efforts to continue and to get negotiations between the EU-3 and Iran back on track," he said. This breathing space also provided an opportunity for "serious consideration of the Russian proposal for a joint venture with Iran for uranium enrichment," the spokesperson added.

The MEA spokesperson said India called upon Iran "to respond positively to the requests from the IAEA Board to restore the CBMs it had voluntarily adopted in the Paris agreement, and continue to cooperate with the IAEA in resolving any outstanding issues related to its nuclear programme."

He stressed that India's vote against Iran "should not be interpreted as in any way detracting from the traditionally close and friendly relations we enjoy with [that country]."

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