US gives up insistence that Iran violates NPT

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 24, 2003

US gives up insistence that Iran violates NPT

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The United States has dropped its demand for the UN atomic watchdog to declare that Iran is in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, despite its belief Teheran wants to build an atom bomb, Western diplomats said on Saturday.

After two days of talks, the UN International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-member Board of Governors on Friday adjourned until Wednesday to give diplomats a chance to revise a French, German and British draft resolution condemning Iran's 18-year concealment of sensitive nuclear research.

However, Western diplomats said informal talks continued on Saturday between Washington and the capitals of the European Union's "big three" to toughen up the trio's proposal, two drafts of which the Americans rejected as being too weak.

"Talks are definitely ongoing, though much of the discussion is taking place in the capitals," a Western diplomat said.

Diplomats close to the talks said US officials had foregone their demand for the resolution to contain an explicit reference to Iran's past "non-compliance" with its NPT obligations, and that Teheran be reported to the UN Security Council, which could choose to impose economic sanctions.

"I think the US will accept a resolution without an explicit reference to non-compliance," another diplomat said.

Diplomats said US negotiators had abandoned early last week their demand that Iran be reported to the Council when it became apparent only four other board members - Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - would support this.

In exchange, diplomats close to the talks said the United States, which is convinced Iran wants nuclear weapons, were now helping Britain, France and Germany revise the resolution to include a timetable to keep pressure on Iran to co-operate.

The French, British and Germans want to encourage Iran to continue with its stated policy of fully co-operating with the IAEA rather than punish it for past failures. Diplomats said Germany especially feared too harsh a resolution would backfire and cause Iran to stop co-operating with the United Nations.

In October, Iran gave the IAEA what it said was a full and accurate declaration of its nuclear programme and said it had no more nuclear secrets to disclose. Teheran has admitted to covering up the full extent of its atomic programme, but denies wanting bombs.

But a senior Western diplomat said there was no question Iran had an atomic weapons programme that most likely began during the fierce Iran-Iraq war which lasted from 1980 to 1988. He added that there were suspicions the programme still exists.

The United States harshly criticized the IAEA for saying in a recent report on Iran that it had "no evidence" suggesting Teheran had a secret weapons programme.

US Ambassador to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, told the board on Friday the phrase "no evidence" was "highly unfortunate" in the light of revelations about Iran's cover-up and secret experiments with plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment. He said the IAEA should have used the words "no proof" instead.

Brill said the IAEA's wording had provoked "expressions of disbelief that the institution charged with... scrutinizing nuclear proliferation risks was dismissing important facts. "

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei reacted strongly, calling the US statement "disingenuous."

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