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IAEA readies for discusssion of Iranian N-issue |
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Thursday, 15 June 2006LONDON, June 15 (IranMania) - World powers repeated their call at a UN atomic agency meeting for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment but non-aligned states readied to back Tehran's right to this sensitive fuel technology, AFP reported.
The International Atomic Energy Agency was set for a debate on Iran which could start Wednesday or Thursday at the meeting in Vienna of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors.
The meeting is taking place as the world awaits Iran's response to an international offer of talks on trade and other benefits if Tehran suspends uranium enrichment work which has raised fears it seeks nuclear weapons.
In Madrid, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki described the offer as "very positive" and said Iran was "in the process of examining the proposal very seriously and will reply to it as soon as possible".
South African delegate chief Abdul Minty told AFP non-aligned countries would repeat in Vienna a call made by non-aligned foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur in May that backs Iran's right to the nuclear fuel activity of uranium enrichment, which can also be used to make nuclear weapons material.
Diplomats said Washington was fighting to prevent such a statement at the Vienna-based IAEA as the United States wants to keep up pressure on Iran.
But many non-aligned states aspire to nuclear technology and are as much concerned about protecting their right to enrich uranium as Iran's, diplomats said.
The United States wanted the bloc of 16 mostly developing nations on the IAEA board to stick to a February IAEA resolution that eight of the non-aligneds had supported. It had called on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment in order to establish international confidence and start talks.
Iran's ambassador the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Iran appreciated the non-aligned position.
"For the past three years, the uninterrupted support of the NAM (non-aligned movement) has been invaluable," Soltanieh told reporters, adding that the stance from the 116-nation bloc "shows that the majority of the international community supports Iran."
Meanwhile, Britain has filed a statement to IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei on the incentives proposal six world powers have made to Iran.
Diplomats said that Russia and China, which are among the six, supported the statement, even if they had refused to sign it in a move that seemed to hint at a split with their Western partners, the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
None of these nations had signed the agreement reached by their foreign ministers in Vienna on June 1 to propose the incentives deal.
US ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte told reporters that the six "all agree that Iran has a clear choice -- a positive path that brings real benefits and long-term security to the Iranian people, and if Iran chooses not to negotiate, a negative path that would lead to further steps in the Security Council."
Schulte said the six "all agree that Iran's leaders have not taken the steps necessary to give the international community confidence in the peaceful nature of Iran's program."
World powers stressed the benefits Iran can draw from guaranteeing that its nuclear program is peaceful and downplayed the threat of sanctions when they had offered Tehran the deal last week, diplomats told AFP.
The incentives package does stipulate, however, that Tehran has to suspend uranium enrichment until its nuclear activities are proven to be peaceful, according to a copy of the confidential text shown to AFP Tuesday.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana did not present a list of sanctions in the text he handed over personally on June 6 in Tehran to Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, the diplomats said.
"We only handed over the positive part. The idea was not to give Iran a pretext to turn the proposal down," a European diplomat close to the IAEA said.
But Western diplomats have stressed there are two paths open to Iran, one of cooperation and benefits and the other of UN penalties.
Thursday, June 15, 2006 - T®2005 IranMania.com
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Thursday, 15 June 2006
Iran
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