VIENNA, Sept 22: The European Union’s three main powers dropped a demand on Thursday that the UN nuclear watchdog immediately report Iran to the Security Council over its atomic plans, following opposition from Russia and China.
Moscow and Beijing have warned the United States, France, Britain and Germany against stepping up the nuclear standoff with Iran, undermining the Western drive to haul Tehran before the UN’s highest body for possible sanctions.
Earlier this week, the EU had circulated a US-backed draft resolution calling on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) governing board to report Iran’s secretive nuclear programme to the Security Council.
But with at least a dozen of the 35 members of the IAEA board opposed to the EU resolution — including China and Russia — the EU cut out the key demand from a revised draft.
The new draft, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, omitted any explicit threat that Iran would be referred to the Security Council but implied that the IAEA board could choose to refer the matter to the Council in the future.
“The history of concealment of Iran’s nuclear activities ... and the resulting absence of confidence that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes have given rise to questions that are within the competence of the Security Council...,” the draft said.
It also declared that Iran had been in “non-compliance” with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
EU diplomats said they hoped to get unanimous support for what they called a very tough and fair draft resolution.
But it was unclear if the Russians and Chinese were prepared to support it. If Moscow and Beijing opposed it, EU diplomats said the IAEA board would put the original tougher resolution to a vote despite Russian and Chinese opposition.
Iranian negotiator Javad Vaeedi said opposition from Russia and China helped stop the EU from taking Tehran to the Security Council.—Reuters
