TEHRAN, 24 November 2003 — Iran said yesterday there is no reason for the UN atomic watchdog to refer the country’s controversial nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was responding to a tense debate between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States, which has demanded that Iran be declared in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a move that could lead to sanctions.
“There is no reason for (Iran’s nuclear dossier) to be referred to the UN Security Council. It won’t go to the UN Security Council,” Asefi told reporters. “Since the US has lost the game and has been isolated, it’s seeking to disrupt the game. This is unacceptable,” Asefi said.
IAEA Director General Mohamed El-Baradei said in his report to the board that the agency had found “no evidence” of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. But the report also suggested that the IAEA could not rule out such ambitions until it sifted through new information only recently made available by the Iranians after nearly two decades of cover-ups.
US envoy Kenneth Brill accused Iran of lying about its nuclear program and said Baradei’s report glossed over 18 years of deceit that included enriching uranium and processing plutonium. But US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli suggested Friday that the United States was backing away from its insistence that the IAEA board refer Iran’s record on nuclear activities to the Security Council.
Asefi said a deal reached last month with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Britain divided the European countries from the United States and brought political benefits to Iran.
The three key European countries secured Iran’s agreement to voluntarily suspend uranium enrichment and sign an additional protocol to the NPT allowing unfettered inspection of its nuclear facilities.
“So far, we’ve got the best results,” Asefi said. “There are two thinkings within the board. One, supported by Europe, is based on realism and logic. The other, backed by the US and two or three other countries, seeks tension away from facts. The reason behind the two different thinkings is that deal,” he said.
“We hope that the approach based on multilateralism, reality and logic wins over,” Asefi said. “The other approach is being pursued by the US and two or three other countries, and that is not based on realities,” he added.
The United States wants the IAEA to declare Iran in “non-compliance” with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But at the meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors, Britain, France and Germany presented a draft resolution that goes easy on Iran, a step they see as crucial to avoid antagonizing hard-liners in Iran.
Meanwhile, Asefi also said that Iran had launched an investigation into a firebomb attack on the British Embassy here, adding that security around the mission had also been stepped up. “The Ministry of Foriegn Affairs has asked the relevant bodies to provide information,” Asefi told reporters.
“But given the sensitivity of the subject, we have set up special monitoring and have increased the level of security around the embassy since last night. There are some people who want to show the country is unstable but the police will confront them,” he said.
