VIENNA, March 13: The UN nuclear watchdog approved on Saturday a resolution criticizing Iran for withholding sensitive information, infuriating Tehran which just a day earlier had called a surprise halt to UN inspections.
The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted the resolution at a closed-door meeting after a week of intense haggling over a toughly-worded text drafted by Australia and Canada and backed by Washington.
A deal was struck on a compromise text after the US-led camp agreed to some slightly softer language, though diplomats on the board said it still sent a very strong warning to Tehran and left open the option of eventual UN sanctions.
The head of the Iranian delegation called the resolution a "serious setback" and said it had been imposed by one country - a clear reference to the United States, which says Tehran is trying to build an atomic bomb, something Iran denies.
"A resolution is being imposed...on the board by a single country," Amir Zamananinia, head of political affairs at Iran's foreign ministry, said in remarks prepared for delivery at the UN watchdog. "It is...a setback, a serious setback."
Non-aligned countries, which hold 13 of the 35 seats on the IAEA board, China and Russia had all lobbied for a softening of the draft.
One of the compromises was to replace the word "deplores" with the phrase "noting with serious concern" Iran's omissions of sensitive nuclear technology from an October declaration - including undeclared research on advanced "P2" centrifuges that can make bomb-grade uranium.
The resolution says the board will decide in June how to respond to these omissions - a clause that several diplomats said keeps the door open for a possible report to the UN Security Council and economic sanctions.
INSPECTIONS: Other Western diplomats said Tehran's decision on Friday to suspend IAEA inspections, which are aimed at verifying that Iran's nuclear programme is peaceful, was highly troubling.
Tehran's ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Pirooz Hosseini, said inspections would be delayed only for three weeks because of Iran's New Year holiday, which starts next week.-Reuters
