Non-aligned states to back Iran at IAEA meeting
AUSTRIA: Non-aligned states will back Iran's right to nuclear fuel
production at a U.N. meeting this week, unmoved by U.S. calls to join
efforts to get Tehran to stop enriching uranium, diplomats said.
U.N. Security Council powers are waiting for Iran to respond to an
offer they made last week for incentives if Tehran suspends enrichment
and penalties if it does not.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on
Tuesday that Tehran will "soon" give its response.
Washington has nudged Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) states to endorse
the package at a session of the International Atomic Energy Agency
governing board meeting in Vienna this week.
It had hoped support by the 15 NAM nations on the 35-member IAEA
board would help Washington and the European Union deflect Iranian
assertions it is being bullied by powerful countries bent on denying the
Islamic state nuclear energy.
But diplomats from the NAM, which groups 114 nations, said it would
reissue a declaration made by its foreign ministers in Malaysia on May
30 backing Iran's right to nuclear technology.
"We won't make a new statement referring to the current (big power)
proposal or make supportive noises in this regard," said a NAM diplomat,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
"NAM does not want to pronounce on a proposal that basically no one
knows full details about," the diplomat added.
Iran says its atomic drive is meant to generate electricity.
The West, noting Iran has the world's second largest reserves of oil
and gas, suspects Tehran is concealing an atom bomb project since it hid
enrichment research from the IAEA for almost 20 years and has called for
Israel's destruction.
Elements of the package of trade and technology sweeteners offered to
Iran by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and
Germany have been leaked by diplomats. They include unspecified
penalties should Iran rebuff the offer.
Gregory Schulte, U.S. envoy to the IAEA, told Reuters he still
expected NAM states "with few exceptions" would urge Iran to "choose the
path of diplomacy rather than confrontation".
"My consultations with other board members make clear that countries
from every region and grouping are concerned with Iran's failure to
build international confidence," he said. NAM countries are worried that
making Iran abandon its nuclear fuel enrichment plans would set a
precedent preventing other developing states pursuing an atomic energy
option.
They oppose any resort to sanctions as mooted by the West, seeing no
justification so long as Iran has not been proved to be using enrichment
technology to build atom bombs in violation of the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Tuesday: "We
are confident that the world will mobilise and urge Iran to come to the
table to resolve these differences via diplomacy."
Tensions also resurfaced among the six powers which wrapped up the
Iran package on June 1 after weeks of difficult talks.
Russia and China, which had insisted the Iran offer play down
references to possible sanctions, at first refused a French proposal to
have the group, in a joint statement to the board, push Iran to embrace
the package, an EU diplomat said.
"They want to maintain ambiguity..., not look one-sided. Their trade
interests are a factor," he said, alluding to heavy Russian and Chinese
stakes in Iran's energy industry. Vienna, Wednesday, Reuters |