The Hindu : Front Page : IAEA votes to report Iran to U.N. Security Council

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 05, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

IAEA votes to report Iran to U.N. Security Council

27 nations vote for the resolution in Vienna, three against, and five abstain

VIENNA (Austria): The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council on Saturday over fears it wants to produce nuclear arms, raising the stakes in the diplomatic confrontation - and prompting Tehran to threaten immediate retaliation.

Of the Board's 35 member nations, 27 voted for referral, reflecting more than two years of intense lobbying by the United States and its allies to enlist broad backing for such a move. Washington critics Cuba, Venezuela and Syria voted against, and the rest abstained.

Still, the near consensus came at a price for Washington. Long an advocate of firm Security Council action against Iran, including possible political and economic sanctions, the Americans had to settle for what is essentially symbolic referral, for now.

After years of opposition, Russia and China backed the referral last week, bringing support from other nations who had been waiting for their lead. But in return, Moscow and Beijing demanded that the Americans - and France and Britain, the two other veto-wielding Security Council members - agree to let the Iran issue rest until at least March. That is when the IAEA Board meets again to review the agency's investigation of Iran's nuclear program and its compliance with Board demands that it renounce uranium enrichment.

Iran remained defiant, threatening to do precisely what referral was meant to prevent.

Javed Vaeidi, deputy head of Iran's powerful National Security Council, said that - after approval by Iran's National Security Council - his country would stop honouring an agreement with the IAEA allowing its inspectors broad powers to probe Tehran's nuclear activities. And, he said, Tehran "now has to implement fuller scale of enrichment."

Iran says it wants to enrich only to make nuclear fuel, but concerns that it might misuse the technology accelerated the chain of events that led to Saturday's referral to the U.N. Security Council, after Tehran took IAEA seals off enrichment equipment January 10, and said it would resume small-scale activities.

Vaeidi also said a proposal to enrich Iranian uranium in Russia was dead.

Moscow has suggested that Iran shift its plan for large-scale enrichment of uranium to Russian territory to alleviate international concern that Iran might use the process to develop a nuclear bomb.

Other Iranian comment reflected Tehran's fury at Washington.

The Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Defense Minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, describing U.S. leaders as "terrorists and the main axis of evil in the world.''

Najjar was responding to U.S. Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who at a high-level security conference in Munich, Germany, repeated Washington's view of Iran as the "world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.''

European leaders expressed support for the referral, through a resolution drafted by France, Britain and Germany on behalf of the EU.

British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, said the vote showed "the international community's determination to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East."

European Union Foreign Policy chief, Javier Solana, said through a spokesman that he hoped the vote would send "a clear signal to Iran that it must comply with the demands of the international community."

Russia's government urged Iran to "respond constructively'' to the IAEA's decision, "including the restoration of a voluntary moratorium on all uranium enrichment works."

German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said the "convincing" vote sent a "clear signal to Tehran" to take account of international concerns.

The resolution links the decision to ask for Tehran's referral to the country's breaches of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and lack of confidence that it is not trying to make weapons.

The text expresses "serious concerns about Iran's nuclear program.'' It recalls "Iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations'' to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It expresses "the absence of confidence that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes."

It requests IAEA Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, to "report to the Security Council" with steps Iran needs to take to dispel suspicions about its nuclear ambitions.

These include that it return to freezing uranium enrichment; consider stopping construction of a heavy-water reactor that could be the source of plutonium; formally ratify the agreement allowing the IAEA greater inspecting authority and give the nuclear watchdog more power in its investigation of Iran's nuclear program.

The draft also asks that ElBaradei provide the Security Council with his report to the March 6 IAEA Board session, along with any resolution that meeting might approve.

Chief British IAEA delegate, Peter Jenkins, urged Iran to heed the resolution before March, warning: "Should Iran fail to comply ... it will fall to the Security Council to bring additional pressure to bear.''

His American counterpart, Gregory L. Schulte, indirectly acknowledged that the Security Council's hands were tied until March, saying: "we're not talking about sanctions at this stage."

But Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, said that if Iran failed to use the March window of opportunity, action by the U.N. Security Council would be "almost inevitable."

A senior European diplomat familiar with the issue said there was general agreement among the five permanent Security Council members that - if Iran remains defiant beyond March 6 - the council would slowly increase pressure.

A first step could be a council declaration urging Iran to comply with the resolution, the diplomat said, demanding anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential strategy on Iran.

Agreement on the final wording of the text was achieved overnight, only after Washington compromised on a dispute with Egypt over linking fears about Tehran's atomic program to a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction - an indirect reference to Israel.

The final resolution recognized "that a solution to the Iranian issue would contribute to global non-proliferation efforts and ... the objective of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, including their means of delivery.'' - AP

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