0
WASHINGTON, Aug 23: The United States, convinced Iran is deceiving the world about its nuclear ambitions, has launched a campaign to bring the issue before the UN Security Council, including a top official’s trip next week to Moscow.
Undersecretary of State John Bolton, the Bush administration’s senior non-proliferation official, will urge Russia and other countries to lay the Iranian nuclear issues at the feet of the international community’s premier body, US officials said on Friday.
One official said Russia, under US pressure to halt cooperation on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, has postponed delivery of critical reactor fuel until next year.
He dismissed a report by the official IRNA news agency on Friday that Iran was ready to sign a protocol to return nuclear waste to Russia. Such a move could undercut US charges that Tehran is bent on producing nuclear weapons.
“The Iranians have been ‘ready’ to sign a spent-fuel take-back agreement for over a year,” he said.
Mr Bolton, a leading hardliner, will be in Moscow when the UN nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is expected to issue its second report on Iran’s nuclear activities.
His visit also coincides with the launch of six-party talks in Beijing on North Korea’s nuclear programme.
While Mr Bolton’s Moscow discussions likely will include North Korea, Iran is the focus. The IAEA governing board plans to meet in Vienna on Sept 8 to consider next steps on Iran.
Experts say Iran could be one to three years from having nuclear arms.
COOPERATION LACKING: In its first report last June, the IAEA rapped Tehran for failing to comply with nuclear safeguards. Since then, UN inspectors have claimed finding enriched uranium in environmental samples taken in Iran.
The second report is expected to “show a continuing lack of cooperation by Iran (with the IAEA) and shifting stories on what they did or didn’t do”, a US official said.
Iran has offered no proof of its claim that its nuclear activities support a civilian power programme, he said.
Also, Tehran still refuses to sign the “additional protocol” that would allow the IAEA to make more intrusive snap inspections. It told Britain, Germany and France in a recent letter that certain conditions were required first, he said.
President George Bush in June declared he “will not tolerate the construction of a nuclear weapon” in Iran.
Although Iran let IAEA inspectors check various sites, US officials insist cooperation has been very grudging.
“It’s a pattern of behaviour and deception that is entirely consistent with the idea that they are trying to conceal a nuclear weapons programme. That’s why we think it’s time to move the issue from the IAEA board of governors to the Security Council,” which could impose sanctions, a US official said.—Reuters
