The U.N. atomic watchdog wrapped up a two-day debate on Iran's disputed
atomic drive Friday, urging Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment and
open up its nuclear program to U.N. inspections.
The Iran issue has been the main topic of a regular year-end
meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board.
Debate focussed on a rather mixed report by IAEA Director
General Mohamed ElBaradei on Tehran's willingness to cooperate in a
four-year investigation into the extent and nature of its nuclear
drive.
There were clear divisions on the board about how best to
persuade Iran to toe the line, with Western members like the U.S. and
Europe pushing for a new round of U.N. sanctions if outstanding
questions are not resolved by the end of this year.
However, other countries, such as the so-called Non-Aligned
Movement, a bloc headed by Cuba and including India and South Africa,
rejected the path of sanctions.
"Several members welcomed that Iran had provided...answers
and clarifications to the Agency's questions in a timely manner," the
35-member board of governors noted in a summary statement at the end of
the meeting.
"However, several others expressed regret that Iran's
cooperation had been reactive rather than proactive and supported the
Director General's call on Iran for active cooperation and full
transparency," it said.
The statement also said several board members had stressed
"the continued need for negotiation and dialogue among all parties...as
the way to reach a long term solution of the Iranian nuclear issue."
Nevertheless, a diplomat who attended the meeting insisted
the overwhelming majority of members backed ElBaradei's call for Iran
to cooperate further, and to comply with U.N. Security Council
resolutions, including suspension of enrichment.
Among them were Russia and China, who have previously
refused to sign up to the campaign for additional sanctions, the
diplomat said.
The enrichment issue forms the crux of the current standoff
with Iran, which the West believes is pursuing and even expanding the
process in a covert drive to build a bomb. Iran insists it is merely
seeking a technology to generate electricity for a growing population
and is adamant it won't suspend enrichment.
"There is no justification, politically, legally or
technically to ask for suspension," Iran's U.N. envoy Ali-Asghar
Soltanieh told reporters after addressing the board.
He warned additional tougher sanctions by the Security
Council "would have negative impact on our collaboration and full
cooperation with the agency."
The Security Council has already slapped two sets of
sanctions on the Islamic republic for its continued defiance on the
matter, once in December 2006 and again in March 2007. The sanctions so
far include a ban on the supply of nuclear-related technology and
materials, a block on Iranian arms exports, and an asset freeze on
individuals and companies involved in Iran's nuclear and missile
programs.
Soltanieh insisted the outstanding issues were being cleared up one-by-one.
"We are now planning with the agency to respond to the next
step," he said, refusing to predict how long the process might take.
"We want to put an end to this whole issue. Four years is enough," he said.
However Western diplomats refuted Soltanieh's claim that some
questions were now "closed", and said a whole range still needed to be
answered.
"We are interested at least as much in the present and
future as the past," the so-called E.U.-3 group of the U.K., France and
Germany said, adding in a sign of the growing impatience with Iran's
perceived foot-dragging: "A wait-and-see approach is not an option."
The next step on the road to possible sanctions is a widely
anticipated report by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana
on the Iran issue, due by the end of this month.
Solana has been trying to persuade Tehran to resume talks on
suspending uranium enrichment in exchange for a package of political
and economic incentives, but Tehran has refused to offer concessions.
Solana is expected to meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili next week.