AFP: Canada, the 2004-5 chair of UN atomic energy agency’s Board of Governors, warned Monday it would press the body to inform the Security Council of any violation of a deal to freeze Iran’s uranium program. The Canadian position, laid out in a statement by Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, mirrored the US stance on the agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). AFP
OTTAWA – Canada, the 2004-5 chair of UN atomic energy agency’s Board of Governors, warned Monday it would press the body to inform the Security Council of any violation of a deal to freeze Iran’s uranium program.
The Canadian position, laid out in a statement by Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, mirrored the US stance on the agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“This is a final opportunity for Iran to begin the process of restoring international confidence in its nuclear program,” said Pettigrew.
“To do so, Iran must cease all uranium-enrichment and other proliferation-sensitive activities and sustain this suspension in a comprehensive and transparent manner.
“If it does not do so, Canada will urge the IAEA to take immediate action and to report Iran’s non-compliance to the United Nations Security Council.”
Pettigrew also used the statement to offer guarded support for the compromise between Iran and the IAEA, based on a deal between Tehran and France, Britain and Germany reached on November 14.
He said it was a “first step toward a potential permanent solution.”
Pettigrew has been locked in a war of words with Iran on another issue — the death of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi after she was arrested in Iran last year — which sparked a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
The IAEA earlier Monday adopted a toned-down resolution on Iran’s nuclear program after Tehran agreed to a total freeze on all uranium enrichment activities.
The resolution was a painstaking compromise between hardline US demands to crack down on what Washington says is a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program and Tehran’s threats to stop cooperating.
Iran and the European trio are to begin talks in December on a package of rewards to Iran for suspending uranium enrichment, the key process using centrifuges to make fuel for nuclear reactors — or the explosive core of atomic bombs.
Iran claims its nuclear program is a peaceful, civilian effort and rejects Washington’s claims.
