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22 September 2004

Powell: U.S. Pursuing Diplomatic Course on Iranian Nuclear Issue

Calls IAEA's November meeting a key event

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The United States will continue to work in concert with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the European Union (EU), and other members of the international community to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear program, Secretary of State Colin Powell said September 22.

Speaking with journalists while attending the U.N. General Assembly session, Powell said that the United States has no plan at the present to deal with Iran independently. The issue has been a subject of bilateral discussions that top U.S. officials have been holding with other international officials attending the U.N. session.

"We have a firm policy with respect to Iran that we are following. We're working with the IAEA, we're working with the European Union, with the EU secretary general, and we're working with like-minded nations who believe it's not in the interest of the region for Iran to have nuclear weapons," the secretary of state said.

In mid-September, the IAEA Board of Governors called on Iran to suspend all activities related to uranium enrichment, a potential step to producing nuclear weapons, and said it will decide at its November meeting what, or if, further steps are required. One option is referring the matter to the U.N. Security Council, which has the authority to impose sanctions on Iran for not complying with its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations.

In its resolution, the IAEA board said that it was making steady progress towards understanding Iran's nuclear programs but said it is seriously concerned that Iran has not heeded repeated calls to suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.

"[T]here's a clear understanding now that Iran must satisfy the concerns that have been expressed by the international community by the time of the November meeting," Powell said.

"If it doesn't do that by the time of the November IAEA meeting, I think there will be every reason at that point to send the matter on to the Security Council," the secretary said.

"So we're talking about diplomacy and political efforts to stop this movement on the part of the Iranians toward nuclear weapons and we're not talking about strikes. But every option . . . of course, remains on the table," Powell said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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