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AP: IAEA to report Iran to Security Council
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-04 20:11
The U.N. nuclear watchdog on Saturday reported Iran to the U.N. Security
Council in a resolution expressing concern Tehran's nuclear program may not be
"exclusively for peaceful purposes."
IAEA Director
General Mohamed El Baradei briefs the media during a board of governors
meeting in Vienna's U.N. headquarters, February 2, 2006.
[Reuters] | The landmark decision by the
International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board sets the stage for future
action by the top U.N. body, which has the authority to impose economic and
political sanctions.
Still, any such moves were weeks if not months away. Two permanent council
members, Russia and China, agreed to referral only on condition the council take
no action before March.
Twenty-seven nations supported the resolution, which was sponsored by three
European powers — Britain, France and Germany — and backed by the United States.
Cuba, Syria and Venezuela were the only nations to vote against. Five others
— Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya and South Africa — abstained, a milder form
of showing opposition.
Among those backing the referral was India, a nation with great weight in the
developing world whose stance was unclear until the vote.
Reacting to referral, Javed Vaeidi, the deputy head of Iran's powerful
Security Council, said his country would "immediately" set into motion steps to
restart work on full-scale uranium enrichment and curtail the inspecting powers
of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
After approval by the Security Council, Iran would stop honoring an agreement
with the IAEA allowing its inspectors broad powers to monitor and probe Tehran's
nuclear activities, he told reporters. And he said his country would start work
on full-scale uranium enrichment — an activity that can produce the fissile core
of nuclear warheads.
Iran says it wants to enrich only to make nuclear fuel, but concerns that it
might misuse the technology accelerated the chain of events that led to
Saturday's Security Council referral, after Tehran took IAEA seals off
enrichment equipment Jan. 10 and said it would resume small-scale activities.
Vaeidi on Friday said referral would mean his country would no longer
consider an internationally supported plan to move his country's enrichment to
Russia as a way of depriving Iran direct access to the technology. On Saturday,
however, he said his country was still considering a response to the Russian
plan.
The resolution refers to Iran's breaches of the nuclear nonproliferation
treaty and lack of confidence that it is not trying to make weapons.
It expresses "serious concerns about Iran's nuclear program." It recalls
"Iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations" to the nonproliferation
treaty. And it expresses "the absence of confidence that Iran's nuclear program
is exclusively for peaceful purposes."
It requests IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to "report to the
Security Council" steps Iran needs to take to dispel suspicions about its
nuclear ambitions.
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