[Mb-civic] Security Council Pressures Tehran - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Security Council Pressures Tehran
Iran Is Urged to Halt Uranium Enrichment

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 30, 2006; A01

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- The Security Council called on Iran 
Wednesday to suspend its uranium enrichment program within 30 days, 
ending three weeks of deadlock between Western powers and Russia and 
China over how to pressure Tehran to prove its nuclear efforts are not 
aimed at making weapons.

The 15-member council unanimously adopted a nonbinding statement on Iran 
after the United States and five other key countries finished difficult 
negotiations on its wording. The statement does not commit the United 
Nations to action against Iran and was written to avoid language that 
might clearly set the stage for sanctions or subsequent military moves 
-- the sort of direct pressure that Russia and China have declined to 
support.

But U.S. and other Western officials said the Security Council's action 
-- its first unified statement on Iran's nuclear program -- represents 
an important breakthrough and could set the stage for a tougher line 
later if Tehran refuses to meet the council's demands. Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice was set to meet Thursday in Berlin with

foreign ministers of Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany to map 
out the next steps in confronting Iran over its nuclear program.

"Iran is more isolated now than ever," Rice said in a statement after 
the vote. "The Security Council's Presidential Statement sends an 
unmistakable message to Iran that its efforts to conceal its nuclear 
program and evade its international obligations are unacceptable."

Referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' 
atomic watchdog, she continued: "The international community expects 
Iran to comply with the IAEA's call to suspend all enrichment-related 
activity and to return to negotiations."

Iran's U.N. ambassador, Javad Zarif, told reporters his government has 
not decided on a formal response, but said that Iran will never give up 
its right to produce nuclear fuel for a peaceful nuclear energy program.

"Iran will want to cooperate with the international community, but it 
does not accept pressure or intimidation," he said. "We have made it 
clear at the highest levels of government Iran does not want nuclear 
weapons, nor does it want to pursue development, stockpiling or 
acquisition of these inhumane weapons."

The council accord was struck just hours after Rice urged Russian 
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a telephone call to support a 
French and British draft statement urging Iran to suspend its uranium 
enrichment within 30 days or face increased, but unspecified, 
international pressure. The statement also calls on Iran to fully 
cooperate with the IAEA, which conducts inspections aimed at preventing 
the spread of atomic weapons.

U.S., British and French diplomats secured Russian and Chinese support 
by offering concessions that softened the tone of the statement, which 
was read by the council's rotating president, Cesar Mayoral of 
Argentina. They included extending the deadline for Iranian compliance 
from 14 to 30 days, and dropping language hinting that Iran's nuclear 
program constitutes a threat to international peace and security.

The agreement on the statement masked persistent divisions among the 
Security Council five veto-wielding powers over the threat of sanctions 
or the military force to compel Iranian cooperation.

Lavrov said in Moscow that "any ideas involving the use of force or 
pressure in resolving the issue are counterproductive and cannot be 
supported."

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, told reporters in New York that 
the council's statement underscores the importance of pursuing a 
diplomatic settlement and letting U.N. inspectors, not the Security 
Council, take the lead.

John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, insisted that 
the Security Council, which is vested by the U.N. charter with 
responsibility for responding to threats to international peace and 
security, has the obligation to prevent Tehran from producing nuclear 
weapons. He expressed frustration that Moscow and Beijing had blocked 
language in the statement highlighting the council's obligation to react 
to such threats.

"What happened here today is that Russia and China declined to quote 
from the U.N. charter," said Bolton, waving a copy of the charter. "We 
accept that . . . because the message is clear, nonetheless, that Iran's 
nuclear weapons program is unacceptable."

Russia's U.N. ambassador, Andrei Denisov, conceded that there are 
"suspicions, very strong suspicions" that Iran is developing nuclear 
weapons, but he said there is still no hard evidence and that it is up 
to U.N. nuclear inspectors to decide.

The U.N. statement expressed concern that the IAEA has not provided 
assurances, after years of investigation into covert aspects of Tehran's 
nuclear program, that Iran is not secretly developing nuclear weapons. 
It calls on Iran to comply with the agency's demand to halt all of its 
uranium enrichment activities to "build confidence" that Iran's nuclear 
activities are for an "exclusively peaceful purpose." IAEA Director 
General Mohamed ElBaradei is to report on "the process of Iran's 
compliance" in 30 days.

Iran says it needs to enrich uranium to produce electricity for an 
energy-hungry society. The IAEA has accused Iran of engaging in a 
pattern of deception and concealment that has fueled international 
suspicions. It acknowledges that Iran has the right to nuclear energy 
and that it cannot prove Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/29/AR2006032900317.html?nav=hcmodule
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