A statement issued by the office of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the EUs rotating presidency, said, Today, the International Atomic Energy Agencys 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.
Saturdays 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 ElBaradeis and Irans 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 boards 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 Irans 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.
