Iran censured at UN nuclear meeting

Al-Shorfa and wire services
For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-12-02

The IAEA board of governors meeting at Vienna's UN headquarters, Nov. 27. (Reuters/Herwig Pramme)

VIENNA — In a blow to Iran, on Nov. 27, the board of UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) overwhelmingly backed a demand from the US, Russia, China and three other powers that Tehran immediately cease building its newly revealed nuclear facility and freeze uranium enrichment.

Iranian officials shrugged off the approval of the resolution by 25 members of the 35-nation board of the IAEA. Members spoke of new UN sanctions if Tehran remained defiant.

"The next stage will have to be sanctions if Iran doesn't respond to what is a very clear vote from the world community," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the resolution's passage showed that "the international community still wants dialogue with Iran, but time is pressing. Iran must know: our patience is not infinite."

The IAEA resolution criticised Iran for defying a UN Security Council ban on uranium enrichment, the source of both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads. It also censured Iran for secretly building a uranium enrichment facility and demanded that it immediately suspend further construction.

Brown called the resolution "the strongest and most definitive statement yet made by the countries, who are very worried about nuclear ambitions on the part of Iran."

The French Foreign Ministry suggested that if Iran continued to refuse to meet UN demands on its nuclear programme, the international community would follow the second track of its "double approach,” in other words, sanctions.

Iran put on a show of defiance, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast describing the resolution as a "show...aimed at putting pressure on Iran, which will be useless."

In Vienna, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Tehran's chief IAEA delegate, told the meeting that "neither resolutions of the board of governors nor those of the United Nations Security Council ...neither sanctions nor the threat of military attacks can interrupt peaceful nuclear activities in Iran, for even a second."

However, six-power unity on the resolution and its strongly backed passage was a clear rebuke to the Islamic Republic and its efforts to portray its nuclear programme as a purely peaceful attempt to harness atomic energy.

Moscow and Beijing’s backing for the document at the Vienna meeting reflects broad international disenchantment with Tehran.

Strong support for the resolution at the meeting was also notable. Only three nations, Cuba, Venezuela and Malaysia, voted against the document, with six abstentions and one member absent. Even most non-aligned IAEA board members abandoned Tehran, despite their traditional backing of the Islamic Republic.

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