07 February 2006
World Must Be Firm on Iran Nuclear Issue, U.S. Official Says
Nuclear agency calls for Iranian cooperation, refers issue to Security Council
By David Shelby
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington – The international community must use the time between now and the March 6 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) board of governors to convince Iran to comply with the demands the board outlined in its February 4 resolution on the Iranian nuclear program, according to Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph.
“I think what is necessary to stop Iran is a firm indication that the international community not only will speak to this issue, but will take whatever measures are necessary to convince Iran that it is in its interest to forego a nuclear weapons capability,” Joseph told reporters at a press briefing in Washington February 6.
However, he sounded a cautionary note about the difficulty of convincing Iran to reverse course on its nuclear program. “It's a very difficult thing to do. And what we've seen to date is a very determined Iranian regime, determined to acquire a nuclear weapons capability.”
Joseph spoke to reporters two days after the IAEA’s board of governors passed a resolution calling on Iran to suspend its nuclear activities and cooperate with the agency’s monitoring efforts. The board asked IAEA Director-General Mohamed El-Baradei to report these demands to the U.N. Security Council and follow up with an additional report on the implementation of the resolution following the board’s March meeting. (See related article.)
The resolution was adopted with the support of 27 of the 35 countries represented on the board and with only three dissenting votes. Joseph called the vote “a very clear and sharp condemnation of Iran's failure to take the steps that the IAEA board over the course of the last two and a half years have identified as necessary.”
Joseph said it is now Iran’s responsibility to respond to the IAEA’s concerns, but he offered little hope that the Tehran regime would act in a constructive manner. Following the IAEA vote, he noted, Iran declared that it would end cooperation with IAEA inspectors and resume full-scale uranium enrichment activities.
“[W]e have watched Iran proceed step by step, conversion to enrichment-related activities, in a way that demonstrates very clearly that they are moving forward to a nuclear weapons capability,” Joseph said.
Iran agreed with France, Germany and the United Kingdom (the EU-3) in the November 2004 Paris Agreement that it would suspend uranium conversion and enrichment activities while the parties negotiated an arrangement to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program would be limited to peaceful, civilian purposes.
Iran unilaterally broke with that agreement in August 2005 when it resumed conversion of uranium to UF-6 gas, the first step in the nuclear fuel cycle. It further violated the agreement in January 2006 by resuming research into enrichment, which would allow it to process UF-6 into fuel-grade or weapons-grade uranium.
Joseph insisted that the current confrontation is not about denying Iran access to civilian nuclear power, a right that it enjoys under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. “This is about stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, and there is no right under the treaty that provides for enrichment if the purpose of that enrichment is for a nuclear weapons program,” he said.
For additional information on U.S. policies, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
The full text of Joseph’s remarks is available at the State Department Web site.
(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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