AP: The European Union submitted a motion Friday to the U.N. atomic watchdog agency that sets Iran up for referral to the Security Council later this year unless it halts some of its nuclear activities.
Associated Press
By GEORGE JAHN
VIENNA, Austria – The European Union submitted a motion Friday to the U.N. atomic watchdog agency that sets Iran up for referral to the Security Council later this year unless it halts some of its nuclear activities.
Diplomats earlier said a watered-down text was likely to get Russia’s support, but the motion contained a direct reference to the Security Council and held out the likelihood of referral in the coming months.
The draft resolution urges the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency to consider reporting Iran to the Security Council, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press. It cites noncompliance with provisions of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and suspicions that Tehran’s nuclear activities could threaten international peace and security.
Any resolution still has to be accepted by the board before it has validity. It was unclear when the text would be put to a vote, but nations supporting it were in the majority, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of because they were not authorized to discuss details of the closed proceedings.
The Security Council could impose sanctions if it determines that Iran violated the treaty, but Russia and China are certain to veto such action, and the draft did not mention sanctions.
Still, it was unequivocal in saying that unless Iran ends uranium conversion and clears up questions remaining about its past nuclear activities, the grounds exist for Security Council referral.
Noncompliance with a country’s obligations under the treaty is automatic grounds for a report to the Security Council under IAEA statutes, and the draft said “Iran’s many failures and breaches of its obligations … constitute noncompliance.”
Iran’s spotty record on cooperating with an IAEA inquiry since that began in 2002 has resulted in an “absence of confidence that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes, the document said. That finding puts Iran “within the competence of the Security Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,” according to the text.
