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US lobbying to stop pro-Iran nuke statement |
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Tuesday, 13 June 2006LONDON, June 13 (IranMania) - The United States was fighting to prevent non-aligned states backing Iran's right to uranium enrichment at a meeting of the UN nuclear agency, diplomats told AFP.
Washington feared such a move would ease world pressure on the Iranians to begin talks on curbing their nuclear program, feared to be a covert grab for the atom bomb, they said.
Non-aligned countries planned to issue a statement in support of Tehran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting, which opened Monday, said a diplomat from the bloc who asked not to be named.
The Non Aligned Movement (NAM) statement would renew a message first issued May 30 in Malaysia, when the bloc affirmed Iran's right to atomic energy and opposed any attack on nuclear facilities, the diplomat said.
"The Americans are not happy with that statement and told that to the NAM members," the diplomat said.
Instead the United States wanted the bloc, which numbers some 16 mostly developing nations on the IAEA board, to stick to a February IAEA resolution calling on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, AFP noted.
Enrichment of uranium which makes nuclear reactor fuel but also atom bomb material.
"The US point of view is that the Iranians should not be allowed to feel relaxed about enrichment, that the goal is to keep the pressure on them," the diplomat said.
A senior US State Department official said Washington did not want Tehran to press on with its uranium enrichment activities while drawing out negotiations with the rest of the world.
Six world power, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China -- last week presented Tehran with an offer of trade and other benefits if it suspends uranium enrichment.
With Iran being called on to answer the benefits offer within weeks, "we don't want the Iranian authorities to be considering this indefinitely," a senior US State Department official said.
"We don't want to be back into a situation we've seen before where they say they are prepared to negotiate but at the same time they just continue with their nuclear activities," the official said.
Neither side wants the IAEA meeting here to deteriorate into a row that could upset delicately balanced diplomatic efforts to coax Iran into curbing its nuclear ambitions.
"People will be watching the NAM statement to see how positive or negative they are," said a European diplomat.
The IAEA is expected to debate Iran's nuclear activities Wednesday or Thursday at a regular business meeting which opened Monday of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors.
The IAEA in February found Iran in non-compliance with international nuclear safeguards, opening the door to possible UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday in Luxembourg that he expected Iran to give its first official response this week to the incentives package.
Iran has given no timing for its response.
The United States called here Monday on Iran to halt uranium enrichment and grab an "enormous diplomatic opportunity."
Iran should "take advantage of the enormous diplomatic opportunity that lays in front of the Islamic Republic," said the US ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte.
But Iran appeared resolute.
"Iran has achieved nuclear fuel technology. This is our absolute right, and we will not negotiate our absolute right with anyone," Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters in Tehran.
Iran says it has a mandate to enrich uranium under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty because it only seeks the fuel for power generation purposes.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday that his agency had after over three years of investigating Iran "not made much progress in resolving outstanding verification issues. I would continue to urge Iran to provide the cooperation needed to resolve these issues.
ElBaradei welcomed "the recent efforts that aim to reach a compehensive agreement" and said he remained "convinced that the way forward lies through dialogue and mutual accomodation among all concerned parties."
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - T®2005 IranMania.com
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Tuesday, 13 June 2006
Iran
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