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IAEA optimistic on Iran nuke program deal
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-06 19:57
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency expressed
cautious optimism Monday on the chances of reaching an international agreement
to defuse concerns about Iran's nuclear activities and make U.N. Security
Council action unnecessary.
IAEA's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei
delivers a press statement prior to the start of the International Atomic
Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board meeting on the escalating nuclear
standoff with Iran, on Monday, March 6, 2006, at Vienna's International
Center. [AP] |
The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board was not likely to
discuss the Iran issue until Tuesday or Wednesday. But delegates said that
whatever step the council might take would stop far short of sanctions.
But as the board meeting opened, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei suggested the
council might not need to get involved.
"I am still very much hopeful that in the next week an agreement could be
reached," ElBaradei told reporters, alluding to talks between Moscow and Tehran
aimed at moving Iran's enrichment program to Russia and possible further
contacts between Iran and Europe.
He did not elaborate. But diplomats told the AP that recent talks have
touched on the possibility of allowing Tehran to run a scaled-down uranium
enrichment program, despite its potential for misuse in building atomic weapons.
That point was significant because the Europeans and the United States have
for years opposed allowing Iran any kind of enrichment capability 錕斤拷 a stance
that Russia, China and other influential nations have embraced.
Tehran has insisted on its right to conduct enrichment, saying it wants only
to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity. But enrichment
also can create fissile material for warheads, and a growing number of nations
share U.S. fears that is Iran's true goal. Russia recently has sought to
persuade Iran to move its enrichment program to Russian territory, which would
allow closer international monitoring.
But the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations suggested Security Council
action was necessary, saying there was an urgent need to confront Iran's "clear
and unrelenting drive" for nuclear weapons.
Iran "must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international
isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," John Bolton told a
conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Sunday.
Also Sunday, Iran's government warned that putting the issue before the
Security Council would hurt efforts to resolve the dispute diplomatically.
"If Iran's nuclear dossier is referred to the U.N. Security Council,
(large-scale) uranium enrichment will be resumed," Iran's top negotiator, Ali
Larijani, told reporters in Tehran. "If they want to use force, we will pursue
our own path."
He said Iran had exhausted "all peaceful ways," and that if demands were made
contrary to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the nation "will resist."
Larijani said Iran would not abandon nuclear research or back down from
pursuing an atomic program that Tehran insists is only for peaceful purposes.
IAEA delegates suggested the U.N. agency's board would not push for
confrontation with Iran, and said any initial decisions by the Security Council
based on this week's meeting would be mild.
The council's most likely action, they said, would be a statement urging Iran
to increase cooperation with IAEA inspectors and to resume its freeze on uranium
enrichment.
Even such a mild step could be weeks down the road, but it would formally
begin council involvement with Iran's nuclear file, starting a process that
could culminate with political and economic sanctions.
Bolton said a failure by the Security Council to address Iran would damage
the council's credibility. "The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran
poses, the harder and more intractable it will become to solve."
Russia and China, which can veto Security Council actions, are for now
opposed to imposing sanctions against Iran, though they share the concerns of
the U.S., France and Britain 錕斤拷 the other permanent council members with veto
power 錕斤拷 that Iran could misuse enrichment for an arms program.
Though Russia and China, which both have economic and strategic ties with
Tehran, voted with the majority of IAEA board members at a Feb. 4 meeting to
report the issue to the Security Council, they insisted the council do nothing
until after this week's IAEA meeting in Vienna.
Russia is unlikely to agree to strong action while it negotiates with Iran on
the proposal to move Tehran's enrichment program to Russian territory. Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was due this week in Washington and New York to
discuss the status of those talks with Bush administration officials and U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Both Tehran and Moscow have said new talks are planned, though no dates have
been announced. Iran rejected an EU proposal last year to end enrichment in
return for the West providing reactor fuel and economic aid.
Past IAEA board meetings have ended with resolutions taking Iran to task for
hindering investigations into a nuclear program that was kept secret for nearly
18 years and more recently urging it to reimpose a freeze on enrichment.
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