The United States and Europe appeared to be closer toward agreement on Thursday on setting a deadline for Iran to clear up questions about its nuclear programme, diplomats said, although differences remained over what to do afterwards.
According to the latest draft of a resolution being circulated at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) board of governors, Iran will have to cease all activities related to uranium enrichment by October 31 or face being taken before the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.
The draft states that the IAEA believes ”it is essential that Iran immediately suspend all enrichment-related activities … and that this be verified by the agency no later than October 31”.
The draft says the IAEA will then ”make a definitive decision about what further steps are required in relation to Iran’s obligation under its NPT [the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] safeguard agreement”, a clear reference to going to the Security Council.
The US and Europe have been negotiating the terms of the IAEA resolution all week, with Washington pushing for tough measures to be taken against the Islamic republic over its alleged nuclear weapons programme and Germany, France and Britain adopting a softer stance.
The US accuses Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons and wants the IAEA to end a 19-month probe of Tehran’s atomic programme.
Washington wants the IAEA to give Iran an ultimatum to suspend all sensitive nuclear activities or be brought before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
But Europe’s so-called Big 3 — Britain, France and Germany — favour contructive engagement with Iran.
They do not want a resolution to require automatically the IAEA to send the Iranian dossier to the Security Council, even if a deadline is set for Iran to suspend enriching uranium, the key process that makes fuel for civilian reactors but also the explosive cores of atomic bombs.
European diplomats also protest that enrichment is not technically a violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, since the NPT does not ban this activity.
The US had on Wednesday presented key European Union states with a softened version of an ultimatum over Iran’s programme but diplomats said the text was still too strong to win approval from the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors.
”We’re hoping we’ve found ground for compromise,” a US diplomat said of the amendments submitted along with Canada and Australia to a draft resolution presented by Britain, France and Germany.
The latest draft accepted by the Americans said the IAEA ”decides Washington has dropped demands for IAEA inspectors to have unrestricted access to Iranian sites”.
Non-aligned states were firmly in support of the European position. — Sapa-AFP