World powers including Russia agreed on Wednesday on a draft resolution asking the United Nations atomic watchdog to report Iran to the UN Security Council over nuclear work that could be weapons-related, according to a text obtained by Agence France-Presse.
The resolution was to be introduced later in the day to the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose 35-nation board of governors is to meet in Vienna on Thursday to consider whether to bring the Iranian issue before the Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions, a diplomat said.
The five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany agreed in London on Tuesday to bring Iran before the council over its disputed nuclear programme, but, in a compromise with Iranian ally and trading partner Russia, put off UN action until at least the next IAEA meeting in March.
Draft
The actual draft resolution, written by Britain, France and Germany, was edited on Tuesday and Wednesday, with Russia insisting on deleting any reference to specific IAEA statutes that would authorise punitive measures by the UN, the diplomat said.
The draft asks IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei ”to report to the Security Council of the United Nations” on steps Iran needs to take so that ”outstanding questions can best be resolved and confidence built in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s programme”.
It also calls on ElBaradei to ”report” on IAEA ”reports and resolutions relating to this issue”, documents that find Iran in non-compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Western diplomats feel this finding provides grounds for the Security Council to take action eventually.
The draft also calls on Iran ”to help the agency clarify possible activities which could have a military nuclear dimension”.
The military reference is ”new”, one diplomat said, adding: ”It’s calling a spade a spade, and that’s good.”
Iran says its nuclear programme is a peaceful effort to generate electricity, but Europe and the United States believe it may be a cover for developing atomic weapons.
‘Serious concern’
The draft expresses ”serious concern” that Iran has a document on making uranium hemispheres ”since as reported by the [IAEA] secretariat this process is related to the fabrication of nuclear weapons components”.
The draft says it is ”necessary” for Iran to ”re-establish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related activities and reprocessing activities, including research and development”.
Iran set off the current crisis when it broke IAEA seals on enrichment equipment on January 10. Uranium enrichment makes fuel for nuclear reactors, but can also produce atomic bomb material.
The draft says Iran should ”reconsider” its building of a heavy-water reactor, which would produce plutonium, another potential bomb component.
It also says Iran must cooperate fully with IAEA inspectors, including honouring the terms of an additional protocol for wider inspections and allowing visits and interviews outside NPT safeguards, which focus on nuclear material rather than weapons activities.
Iran must provide ”access to individuals, documentation relating to procurement, dual use equipment, certain military-owned workshops and research and development”, the draft says.
The resolution text calls on ”Iran to understand” that there is ”lack of confidence in its intentions in seeking to develop a fissile material production capability”.
In London on Tuesday, a senior US State Department official said the agreement on Iran is the ”first time in two years that you have all the members of the permanent five [which have veto powers on the Security Council] giving the same message to Iran”. — AFP
