Europe hails UN resolution against Iran

Iran Focus: London, Sep. 24 – The European Union welcomed on Saturday a resolution adopted by the United Nations nuclear watchdog requiring that Iran be reported to the Security Council for failing to convince the international community that its nuclear program was entirely peaceful. Iran Focus

London, Sep. 24 – The European Union welcomed on Saturday a resolution adopted by the United Nations nuclear watchdog requiring that Iran be reported to the Security Council for failing to convince the international community that its nuclear program was entirely peaceful.

A statement issued by the office of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said, “Today, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board [of Governors”> has just passed a resolution finding Iran not compliant with its Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations, whilst deferring Iran’s report to the Security Council”.

Saturday’s IAEA vote had 22 states vote in favour of the resolution, 12 states in abstention, and a lone Venezuela voting against it.

Iran on Saturday called the IAEA resolution “illegal”.

The Foreign Office statement noted that “the fact of the resolution and the scale of the vote in its favour are very important if we are to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons capability”.

The statement said details in the latest report by IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei’s and “Iran’s failure to take and stick to the confidence building measures the IAEA Board had earlier called for made such a determination inevitable”.

The British Foreign secretary said in the statement that he hoped “Iran will take this opportunity to meet the concerns expressed by the Board: the European side for its part is prepared to resume negotiations within the framework agreed between the Europeans and Iran last November”.

The IAEA board’s decision was greeted with satisfaction by the United States. The U.S. on Saturday hailed the resolution as a “significant step forward”.

The Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which first revealed Iran’s secret nuclear sites in 2002 and set off the process that has led to the current stand-off, welcomed the IAEA resolution.

“The clerical regime must be referred immediately to the UN Security Council for the adoption of sanctions, including a comprehensive oil and technological embargo”, the NCRI said in a statement received in London.