02 March 2006
U.S. Envoy Bolton Expects Security Council To Meet on Iran
U.N. Security Council agenda is holding March 9 open for IAEA's ElBaradei
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- As the Security Council prepares its agenda for the month of March, Iran's nuclear program is expected to command a great deal of attention.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said March 2 that the 15-nation Security Council will take up the issue after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meets in Vienna, Austria, March 6.
After meeting to set the agenda March 2, Security Council diplomats said that the council is holding open March 9 as a possible date on which IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei will meet with them in New York.
Bolton says there is no question that Iran's nuclear program will be discussed in the council. He pointed out that, in early February, the IAEA board voted to report to the Security Council all information relating to Iran's implementation of its safeguards program, but agreed to defer formal action until after another report from ElBaradei. (See related article.)
The foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- agreed that a Security Council meeting will take place, the U.S. ambassador said.
ElBaradei already has sent his report to the 35-nation IAEA board of governors, but it has not been released publicly. Bolton said that he has read the report.
"ElBaradei makes a convincing case," he continued, pointing out that the first footnote lists 16 IAEA reports on the Iranian nuclear program.
"Looking at the lack of Iranian cooperation, looking at the affirmative efforts Iran made to conceal its nuclear activities and difficulties the IAEA has had pulling information out of them. … There is simply no escaping the conclusion based on the evidence that the Iranians are pursuing a nuclear weapons capability," the ambassador said.
IRAN’S AMBITION “A TEST FOR THE SECURITY COUNCIL,” BOLTON SAYS
Talking with journalists at U.N. headquarters on March 1, Bolton, the chief U.S. envoy to the United Nations, said that even without IAEA action, the issue appropriately belongs in the Security Council.
"With all due respect to the IAEA, with all due respect, the Charter of the United Nations says that the Security Council is responsible for threats to international peace and security. The Security Council doesn't need a report from the IAEA," he said.
"The Security Council is fully capable at the motion of any member of the U.N. to take up threats to international peace and security -- which we clearly believe the Iranian nuclear weapons program is. So this matter is now before the council," the ambassador said.
Bolton, a former under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said he sees the issue as "a test of the Security Council."
"If the Iranians insist, as they have for years now, that they want an indigenous enrichment capability that is something that we can't accept. That is something that all five permanent members have said they can't accept," he said.
"If you say an Iran with nuclear weapons is unacceptable and that it is appropriate to have Iran in the Security Council -- which all five permanent members have said -- then you have to ask what is the council going to do about it," the ambassador said.
Bolton said that the United States is prepared to proceed and expected to have "considerable discussions" with other council members, especially the other permanent members, often referred to as the P-5, who also have veto power.
If the five are serious about their status as permanent members, the ambassador said, "I should think they want to work together and keep the consensus that we've got."
Russia's proposal to supply enriched uranium with the spent fuel returned to Russia "is extremely favorable to Iran," Bolton said.
But he noted "the Iranians are once again trying to obscure the situation, trying to make it look like they're close to an agreement when, in every account I've seen, they continue to affirm they want their own indigenous enrichment capability."
"The notion that research is not helpful to the Iranians and wouldn't give them the capability of achieving highly enriched uranium just misunderstands the nature of what the Iranians are trying to do," Bolton added.
For additional information on U.S. policy, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
(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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