01 September 2006
Iran's Defiance of World "Regrettable," U.S. Diplomat Says
Ambassador Schulte urges Iran not to choose further isolation, sanctions
Washington -- Calling Iran’s continued defiance of the international community over its nuclear program “regrettable,” a senior U.S. diplomat is urging the Islamic republic not to choose further isolation and sanction.
The diplomat, Ambassador Gregory Schulte, was responding to a report August 31 by Mohammed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). At a meeting in Vienna, Austria, ElBaradei told the U.N. Security Council and the IAEA “Iran's authorities have failed to comply with the demands of the U.N. Security Council and failed to cooperate with the IAEA,” said Schulte, who serves as the U.S. permanent representative to the IAEA.
Schulte said the report documented more than a dozen examples of Iran's failures to answer IAEA questions or to provide necessary access to information, individuals and facilities.
“Iran's authorities still won’t explain the full nature of Iran's centrifuge program and its connections to Iran's military and missile programs and to the A.Q. Kahn network, an illicit black market in nuclear weapons technology,” said Schulte, whose remarks September 1 are part of an ongoing U.S. Department of State online discussion in Persian that began on August 14 and is scheduled to run through September 15.
Although Iranian officials have maintained that Iran’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, Schulte cited examples from the latest IAEA report that support international suspicions that Teheran in fact has a nuclear weapons program.
“Iran's authorities still won't turn over a document, acquired from the A.Q. Khan network, on fabricating nuclear warhead components,” Schulte said. “Instead, it forced IAEA inspectors to destroy their notes on this document.”
A.Q. Khan, the former head of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, was removed from his position in 2001 amid growing international concern that he had sold nuclear technology to countries such as North Korea. In 2004, Khan confessed he also had sold nuclear weapons technology to Libya and Iran.
Schulte said the new report also revealed that IAEA inspectors had found new traces of highly enriched uranium. “Why have these traces been found at a waste site, at a facility disguised as a watch factory, on equipment taken from a military facility?” he asked. “Iran's authorities won't give the answers -- and countries across the world are increasingly suspicious.”
In addition, the report documents Iran's continued pursuit of uranium enrichment in defiance of the international community and U.N. Security Council requirements, Schulte said.
“These activities -- conducted at a facility once hidden from both the world and the Iranian people -- are not necessary for Iran to benefit from civil nuclear power. But they are a necessary step in learning how to produce the material for nuclear weapons,” Schulte said.
Iran responded ambiguously on August 22 to a package of incentives provided by the five permanent Security Council members -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- along with Germany (collectively known as the P5+1) to halt its enrichment activities. But subsequent statements of senior Iranian officials have made clear that Iran does not intend to meet the conditions set by the P5+1 and the Security Council, which included an August 31 deadline. (See related article.)
After receiving the IAEA report August 31, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said Iran, by not suspending its uranium enrichment activities, is defying the international community and should be sanctioned. (See related article.)
According to Schulte, the refusal of Iran’s leadership to suspend all enrichment and reprocessing activities by August 31 in accord with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1696 is regrettable not only because the Security Council now will impose sanctions, further isolating and tarnishing the image of Iran, but also “because the pursuit of nuclear weapons by Iran's leadership will only make the Middle East a more dangerous place.”
“Iran’s President recently tried to take attention off Iran's nuclear program by calling for a free and open debate with the American President,” Schulte noted. “It is sad and ironic that the Iranian regime doesn't allow free and open debate in Iran. The Islamic Republic is facing a major choice: cooperation, negotiation, and new opportunities for trade and development, or further isolation and sanction.
“The people of Iran should be able to contribute to this choice,” said Schulte, the U.S. permanent representative to the IAEA and the U.N. Mission in Vienna, Austria. “We all hope that Iran's leaders make the right one.”
More information on Schulte’s webchat can be found on USINFO’s Persian Web site. The transcript (in English) of his views on the P5+1 incentive package also is available.
For additional information, 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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