VIENNA, Nov 22: The United States was backing off on demands to take Iran’s nuclear programme before the UN Security Council as US and European diplomats launched intense weekend negotiations on how to crack down on the Islamic Republic for hiding sensitive atomic activities.
In Washington, a senior State Department official said on Friday: “I’m not sure frankly, that referring it to the Security Council is something that we are insisting on in our negotiations.”
Meanhwhile, in Vienna the US ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), blasted Iran for “brazen and systematic” breaches of nuclear safeguards and said Tehran was trying to develop nuclear weapons.
The United States wants Iran to be declared in “non-compliance” with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a move that could see the issue put before the UN Security Council, which could slap sanctions on Iran.
But Europe’s big three — Britain, France and Germany — have presented at a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board of governors that opened Thursday a soft draft resolution, as they claim that antagonizing Iran could prompt it to cut off cooperation with the IAEA.
Iran was already threatening this, as it said its signing an additional protocol to the NPT to allow wider inspections was linked to how the IAEA board treated it. Washington’s IAEA ambassador Kenneth Brill said Iran’s stand was “not surprising, but not acceptable” as he criticized Iran for backtracking on its pledge to unconditionally accept wider inspections.
The IAEA board is considering a report from its director general Mohamed ElBaradei that outlines 18 years of hidden suspect nuclear activities by Iran, including making small amounts of plutonium and enriched uranium.
ElBaradei said the IAEA has no “evidence,” however, that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, with investigations continuing.
But Brill said the IAEA was damaging its credibility since all signs from Iran’s nuclear programme pointed to “just one purpose — the pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
UN RESOLUTION DISMISSED: Iran dismissed on Saturday a resolution from a United Nations committee rebuking Tehran for human rights violations, describing the measure as “distorted”, state news agency IRNA reported.
The resolution, drafted by Canada, “interferes in Iran’s internal affairs and is distorted,” Iran’s representative in the UN human rights committee, Peymaneh Hasteii, was quoted as saying.
“The content of the resolution is not constructive, and the current approach will discourage Iran in elevating its cooperation with the world community in the area of human rights,” she added. A UN committee on Friday approved a resolution drafted by Canada rebuking Iran for rights violations including alleged torture, suppression of free speech and discrimination against women.—AFP
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