UN draft resolution on Iran

The United States has reached an agreement with France, Britain and Germany on a draft U.N. resolution on Iran that calls for an immediate halt to Tehran's &to= english.pravda.ru/diplomatic/2002/10/31/38949.html ' target=_blank> uranium enrichment program , a diplomat said late on Thursday. "It's a text that all six countries can live with," a Western diplomat close to the talks told Reuters, referring to discussions between Canada, Australia and the European Union's "big three" on Iran's nuclear program, which Washington says is a cover for &to= english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/351/12595_WMD.html ' target=_blank> a nuclear weapons program . Iran's program for uranium enrichment, a process of purifying uranium for use as fuel for power plants or nuclear weapons, is the most controversial part of Tehran's atomic plans, which it says are limited to electricity generation. The preliminary agreement, which still has to be approved by most of the 35 nations on the governing board of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), ended nearly a week of discussions on the text, which the diplomat said would set the stage for a November showdown over Iran's nuclear program. The diplomat summarized the key points of the resolution, saying that it called for the IAEA board to make a decision in November "whether or not to take appropriate steps" regarding Iran's commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The diplomat said that this meant that the board would decide whether to report Iran to &to= english.pravda.ru/main/2002/10/17/38306.html ' target=_blank> the U.N. Security Council , which can impose &to= english.pravda.ru/world/2001/07/04/9333.html ' target=_blank> economic sanctions , for violating the NPT by hiding its uranium enrichment program for nearly two decades. Another diplomat said the U.S., Canadian and Australian agreement with the EU three opened to the door to a general agreement by the IAEA board so that the resolution could be adopted on Friday or Saturday, informs Reuters. According to ABCNEWS, U.S. and European diplomats tentatively agreed Thursday to demand a new Iranian freeze on uranium enrichment by fall as they fine-tuned a draft resolution meant to deprive Iran of technology that could be used to make nuclear weapons. But negotiations over the text being prepared for the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors were overshadowed by a U.S. charge that the U.N. atomic watchdog had kept silent about its concerns over a possible nuclear weapons-related test site in Iran. "This is a serious omission," a U.S. official said, alluding to the lack of specific mention of the Parchin complex in a report that IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei wrote for the board on the status of a probe into Iran's nuclear activities. The U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the United States believed Parchin, southeast of Iran's capital, Tehran, was being used to test high explosives, possibly for use with nuclear weapons. Iran’s powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned on Thursday that the country’s willingness to compromise on its nuclear programme was under pressure from the hardening European stance. “If they keep on behaving like this, it is obvious that our capacity to compromise will decrease and we will act more independently,” Rafsanjani was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. He was referring to efforts by the three main European Union powers — Britain, France and Germany — to pass a resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seeking to limit Iranan’s nuclear activities. “Our aim is to achieve our rights,” Rafsanjani said, adding that “those who stand against us now will have to step back within a couple of months.”For the past year the EU’s so-called “big three” have been trying to convince Iran to give up dual-use activities in the nuclear fuel cycle. The process of mining uranium, converting and then enriching it is legal under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as long as it is for fuel for reactors. But once mastered, the fuel cycle can also provide Iran with the “option” of developing a nuclear bomb. Iran denies accusations it is trying to develop such an arsenal and says it is determined to master the full cycle to provide its own fuel for a planned &to= english.pravda.ru/economics/2001/12/18/23905.html ' target=_blank> atomic energy programme , reports the Daily Times.

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