IAEA delays vote to report Iran to UN Security Council

WORLD / IAEA

 IAEA delays vote to report Iran to UN Security Council
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-04 14:46

The U.N. nuclear watchdog put off until Saturday a vote to report Iran to
the U.N. Security Council over concerns it is seeking atomic bombs, as
European Union powers lobbied developing nations to back the measure.

Diplomats said a clear majority on the International Atomic Energy
Agency's 35-nation board favoured notifying the council on Iran but the
EU held up the vote to try to hammer out a broad consensus with
developing states without abstentions.

The delay arose from developing countries' attempts since Thursday to
soften an EU-initiated resolution to report Iran after the Islamic
Republic threatened to curb U.N. inspections of its atomic sites if sent
to the Security Council.

An EU diplomat said later a deal with the 15 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
nations looked unlikely but the resolution would be tabled anyway for a
vote when the Vienna-board reconvened at 0900 GMT on Saturday.

He said the EU rejected NAM attempts to delete a clause mandating that
all IAEA investigative reports and resolutions, including one in 2005
declaring Iran non-compliant with nuclear non-proliferation safeguards,
be passed to the Council.

"That was a no-no. Paragraph 2 is the holy grail for us," he told
Reuters. "So in the end it looks like every country will vote on its own
conscience. We expect 25 'yes' votes with about 5-7 abstentions and three
'no's'," he said.

Another Western diplomat said that to remove Paragraph 2 would have
surrendered to Iranian intimidation. "The threat (to restrict
inspections) is on everyone's minds but we consider it blackmail and if
we give in to that, there's no end to it."

Diplomats from the EU trio of France, Germany and Britain said the threat
would not deter their efforts to induce the Islamic Republic to come
clean on what they suspect is military involvement in nuclear work and to
stop enrichment of uranium.

But NAM states argued Paragraph 2 could be construed as ending IAEA
oversight of Iran and opening the way to Security Council sanctions
before the IAEA concludes probes into Iran's atomic energy drive, which
it concealed for 18 years until 2003.

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