12 April 2006
Rice Calls for Strong U.N. Response to Iran's Uranium Enrichment
U.S. Secretary of state says Iran increasingly isolated on nuclear issue
By David Shelby
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned April 12 that Iran’s claim of having successfully enriched a small quantity of uranium will lead only to its further isolation in the international community, and she called on the U.N. Security Council to take “strong steps” in response.
“I do think that the Security Council will need to take into consideration this move by Iran and that it will be time when it reconvenes on this case for strong steps to make certain that we maintain the credibility of the international community on this issue,” she told reporters at the State Department.
Iran’s announcement of its nuclear achievement came less than two weeks after the Security Council issued a unanimous presidential statement calling on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and to cooperate with the efforts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program.
“It demonstrates that Iran is not adhering to the international community's requirements,” Rice said.
At the United Nations, where representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council were gathering for a previously scheduled meeting, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters, "[I]f Iran does not comply with the demand in the presidential statement we adopted on March 28 to come into compliance with the existing IAEA resolutions, we would consider at that point a resolution under chapter VII which would make the IAEA resolutions binding on Iran."
A Chapter VII resolution, which deals with threats to peace, could include enforcement provisions allowing for sanctions or the use of military force in the event Iran fails to comply.
All five permanent members of the council -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- have made it clear that they do not want to see Iran with nuclear weapons, according to Bolton. He said that given Iran's record and provocative statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, "leaving a potential nuclear weapons capability in the hands of the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism is not a happy prospect." (See related article.)
Iran agreed to suspend research into uranium enrichment in November 2004 while it discussed the nature of its nuclear program with France, Germany and the United Kingdom, collectively known as the EU-3. Those discussions collapsed in January 2006 when Iran resumed its research activities against the protests of the IAEA and the international community. (See related article.)
Uranium enrichment is the key to both the nuclear fuel cycle and the production of nuclear weapons. The concentration of radioactive isotopes in a uranium compound can produce material suitable to fire nuclear power plants or, at higher concentrations, to produce nuclear bombs.
Rice said that it is this latter possibility that worries the international community.
“This is not a question of Iran's right to civil nuclear power. This is a question of that the world does not believe that Iran should have the capability and the technology that could lead to a nuclear weapon,” she said.
Rice said the United States would continue working to bring the international community into agreement on a diplomatic solution to the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program.
“We are going to be steady in our diplomatic track here because we believe that a concerted and coherent diplomatic policy that the world is behind will convince the Iranians that they have to come back into compliance with what the international community is demanding of them,” she said.
A transcript of Rice’s remarks is available on the State Department Web site.
For more 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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