Iran – nuclear standoff

IAEA calls for end to Qom reactor construction

Article published on the 2009-11-27 Latest update 2009-11-27 14:41 TU

Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Asghar Soltanieh, 23 October 2009.
(Photo: Reuters)

The UN atomic watchdog passed its most strongly-worded resolution against Iran yet Friday, calling on the Islamic republic to immediately halt construction on a newly-revealed uranium enrichment site near Qom.

Of the 35 countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors, only three - Malaysia, Cuba and Venezuela - voted against the resolution, the first to target Iran since 2006.

The matter will now be passed to the UN Security Council, which is tasked with deciding if the resolution is being respected and whether to impose new sanctions if it is not.

The fact that China and Russia, which are traditional defenders of Iran in international nuclear talks, voted for the resolution has been seen as a big rebuke to Tehran.

Iran said earlier this week that it would reduce its co-operation with the IAEA to a strict minimum if the resolution was passed. But after the vote Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Asghar Soltanieh only said that the resolution “calls into question the constructive process” of six-party nuclear negotiations.

Tehran is considering “other options” after rejecting the compromise offered by western powers earlier this fall to deliver enriched uranium for the Iranian civil nuclear program in exchange for a monitoring process to assure that it was not being used to make weapons.

The resolution was immediately hailed by the UK and France. It “sends the strongest possible signal to Iran that its actions and intentions remain a matter of grave international concern,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement.

France wants to see Iran “respond with concrete action to the worries provoked by its nuclear programme,”  said its Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

If Iran doesn’t comply, “the international community will have no other choice than to take the appropriate action”.