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New Momentum for Iran Sanctions

02 March 2010 04:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The new head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran isn’t cooperating with U.N. inspectors, and Russia appeared to move closer to supporting sanctions, adding momentum to efforts at the U.N. Security Council to pressure Tehran to rein in its nuclear program, APA reports quoting â€œThe Wall Street Journalâ€.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, speaking to reporters at his first scheduled news conference since he took the post in December, defended his agency’s impartiality in a Feb. 18 report that said Iran may be working on a missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload.
The IAEA board of governors, which is meeting this week, is expected to recommend that the report be forwarded to the Security Council for consideration during discussions on possible sanctions.
The report and Mr. Amano’s speech Monday represent a shift from the less-confrontational stance of Mr. Amano’s predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei, who led the agency for 12 years.
Mr. Amano said Iran is cooperating with the mandate of the IAEA to make sure no known sources of uranium are being diverted for military use. But he said there is much that Iran keeps off limits to inspectors charged with verifying whether its nuclear program is peaceful or military in nature.
The Feb. 18 report listed questions of "concern" that prevent the IAEA from declaring Iran’s nuclear program to be peaceful, as Tehran claims. On Monday, Mr. Amano said the report was based on an impartial analysis of credible information from multiple sources.
Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh said the findings in the report were "unjustified."
U.S. Ambassador Glyn Davies said the report presents a "factual" list of the IAEA’s concerns and will "help focus Security Council Members on how far Iran has to go" to meet its international requirements.
Mr. Davies said the international community, led by the U.S., China, Russia, France, the U.K. and Germany would now need to "find new ways to change Iran’s direction."
China, however, has opposed sanctions, and Russia has dragged its feet. In Paris Monday, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said Moscow was ready to consider new sanctions, but insisted that any measures not harm the Iranian population.
Mr. Medvedev’s comment echoed previous statements from Russia, which has alternately expressed willingness and reluctance to support efforts to punish Iran.
But French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France and Russia had "extremely close" positions regarding sanctions against Iran. France, with the U.S, has been particularly aggressive in pursuing new sanctions.
Mr. Sarkozy said any sanctions should be "intelligent" and not harm the Iranian population, a spokesman for the president said. The two leaders didn’t discuss details of what sanctions should be imposed, according to the spokesman.
In an October deal brokered by Mr. ElBaradei, the U.S., France, Russia and Iran tentatively agreed that Iran should export most of its stocks of low-enriched uranium for further enrichment to fuel a medical research reactor in Iran. Iran later backed out of that deal.
In a letter on February 18, Iran asked the IAEA to seek potential suppliers willing to sell fuel required for a medical research reactor. Mr. Amano said he forwarded the Iranian request to potential suppliers, and that the October deal also "remains upon the table."
Mr. Davies said there are few countries capable of providing nuclear fuel according to Iran’s particular needs. He said these countries "would have qualms" about unilaterally supplying fuel to Iran.