EU3 initiate move for early IAEA meeting: Iran’s nuclear plan
VIENNA, Aug 25: France, Britain and Germany are preparing to call an emergency meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog’s governing board to send Tehran to the Security Council for possible sanctions, diplomats said on Thursday.
The EU3 were consulting others on the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board in preparation for calling an early meeting after IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei issues a report on Iran, due on Sept 3, IAEA diplomats said.
At a similar meeting two weeks ago, the board called on Iran to halt sensitive atomic work that it resumed this month in defiance of the West. Iran has said it will not heed that call.
Tehran denies Western charges that its atomic programme is a front for covertly developing nuclear weapons.
“The Brits and the Germans are keen on an early board meeting, the French are also not opposed. The Americans also do not oppose it,” said a diplomat familiar with Iran-EU negotiations.
It was not clear, however, that the Europeans would request the meeting. They would have to overcome opposition from political heavyweights Russia and China and Mr ElBaradei’s report to the board would be key.
The EU trio could push for an emergency meeting if Mr ElBaradei said Iran had breached a suspension of sensitive nuclear activities that included the resumed work at a uranium conversion plant near the central city of Isfahan.
“First we have to see what is in the report, which will formally say that Iran has violated the suspension, we expect,” the EU3 diplomat said.
EU diplomats have said that if Iran ignored the board’s call for it to resume its suspension, the EU3 would seek to have Tehran sent to the Security Council, which can impose sanctions.
Iran agreed to suspend activities that could be used to make weapons for the duration of talks with the EU3. The talks were aimed at persuading Iran to abandon its most sensitive atomic work in exchange for political and economic incentives.
The board is due to meet in the week of Sept 19, but diplomats said the Europeans wanted to call a meeting before then to draw attention to the issue’s importance.
“They seem to think it would signal the priority and the importance they’re attaching to this issue,” a European diplomat said.
Some states, however, were opposed to an early meeting and could block it, diplomats said. These included the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which holds a third of the seats on the board.
“The Chinese and the Russians are lobbying against it,” the EU3 diplomat said, adding: “The NAM are also opposed.”
The board of governors seeks to reach decisions unanimously and it was unlikely that an emergency session would be called if it did not seem that consensus could be reached, diplomats said.
“It also depends on what the purpose would be. If the purpose is clearly to send Iran to the Security Council, there will be problems from the NAM,” one added.—Reuters
