World powers pressure Iran at IAEA

Source:AFP Published: 2012-9-13 0:30:17

Russia and China on Wednesday joined Western powers in rounding on Iran at the UN atomic watchdog in a move aimed not only at pressuring Tehran but also persuading Israel that diplomacy must continue.

After days of haggling, the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany managed to hammer out a resolution criticizing Tehran, at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors in Vienna.

It singles out Iran's defiance of UN Security Council resolutions to suspend uranium enrichment, its refusal to allow IAEA inspectors into the Parchin military base and the suspected removal of evidence of nuclear weapons research.

According to a draft seen by AFP, it stresses "once again its serious concern that Iran continues to defy the requirements and obligations contained in the relevant IAEA Board of Governors and UN Security Council Resolutions."

On Tuesday the broad outlines of a text were agreed on, but it had been unclear whether it would become merely a statement to be read out at the board meeting or a more significant resolution to go to a vote.

It stops short of a referral of Iran to the Security Council, and the IAEA resolution, likely to be voted on Thursday, is the 12th in nine years.

But it is significant that Western nations were able to get Moscow and Beijing on board as they are traditionally more lenient on Tehran, with China a major buyer of Iranian oil and Russia having close commercial ties with Iran.

The draft resolution comes as the European Union is considering imposing more sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Israeli frustration has grown at what it sees as a failure by the international community to take seriously the threat posed by Iran or to stop it inching ever closer to "break-out capacity."

In particular, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pressing US President Barack Obama to identify "red lines" for when it would take action.

The IAEA's latest report on August 30 said Iran had doubled since May the capacity at the underground Fordo site by installing around 1,000 new centrifuges, although the number of machines operational was unchanged.

IAEA head Yukiya Amano told the board on Monday that Iran had to allow access to Parchin "without further delay" and that a failure in a string of meetings with Iran was "frustrating."



Posted in: Mid-East

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