World Powers to Table Resolution on Iran at IAEA
Six world powers will table on Wednesday a joint resolution sharply criticizing Iran over its nuclear program at a meeting of the UN atomic agency, diplomats told Agence France Presse.
According to the text seen by AFP, the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany will express their "serious concern" that Iran continues to defy multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions to suspend uranium enrichment.
It also "notes" that the International Atomic Energy Agency said in its latest report that Iranian activities at the Parchin military base would "significantly hamper" inspectors' ability to probe suspected nuclear weapons research.
The resolution likely to be voted on by the 35-nation board of governors of the IAEA on Thursday was hammered out over several days between Western capitals and Moscow and Beijing, seen as more lenient on Iran.
On Tuesday the broad outlines of a text were agreed upon but it had been unclear whether it would become merely a statement to be read out at the IAEA board meeting in Vienna or a more significant resolution to go to a vote.
It stops short however of a referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council, and the IAEA resolution is the 12th in nine years. But it is significant that Western nations were able to get Moscow and Beijing on board.
The IAEA's latest report on August 30 said Iran had continued to defy multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions to suspend uranium enrichment by doubling capacity at its underground enrichment facility at Fordo.
Enriched uranium can be used for nuclear power generation or medical purposes but also, when highly purified, in the fissile core of an atomic bomb. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
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."
Source: Agence France Presse
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