Special Meeting of
IAEA Board of Governors Passes Resolution AgainstIran
The special
meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), held in Vienna between February 2 and 4,
2006 approved a resolution to immediately report its decisions to the U.N.
Security Council on what confidence-building measures it requires from Iran.The resolution alleged that Iran has violated its obligations under the
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and expressed an absence of confidence that Iran’s
nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes. The resolution also
directs the IAEA to report to the Security Council on Iran’s implementation of these
measures after the regular meeting of its board on March 6.
The resolution
was approved by a vote of 27 in favour, 3 against, and 5 abstentions. The votes
in favour of the resolution came from Argentina,
Australia, Belgium, Brazil,
Britain, Canada, China,
Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt,
France, Germany, Ghana,
Greece, India, Japan,
Republic of Korea,
Norway, Portugal, Russia,
Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Sri Lanka, Sweden, United
States and Yemen. The votes against the
resolution were from Cuba, Venezuela and Syria,
and the abstentions came from Algeria,
Belarus, Indonesia, Libya
and South Africa.
The resolution “deems
it necessary for Iran”
to implement five “confidence-building measures”:
* Re-establish
full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing
activities, including research and development;
* Reconsider the
construction of a research reactor moderated by heavy water;
* Ratify
promptly and implement in full the Additional Protocol;
* Pending
ratification, continue to act in accordance with the provisions of the
Additional Protocol; and
* Implement
transparency measures…which extend beyond the formal requirements of the
Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol, and include such access to
individuals, documentation relating to procurement, dual use equipment, certain
military-owned workshops and research and development.
On January 18, Britain, France
and Germany (EU-3) requested
the special meeting of the Board of Governors of the IAEA after Iran removed the seals from its Natanz
uranium enrichment plant and resumed its nuclear fuel research.A resolution was drafted by the United
States, Britain,
France and Germany, and then approved by Russia and China
at a meeting of foreign ministers in London
on January 31. The resolution was formally submitted to the IAEA by Britain, France
and Germany.
The resolution
was the result of a compromise among the Big Five powers on the timing of any
action by the Security Council. The United States and the EU-3 wanted
the U.N. Security Council to take action to reinforce the decisions of the IAEA
immediately following the special board meeting. China
and Russia,
however, would only agree to support the resolution if time was allowed to
resolve the issue prior the next meeting of the IAEA board on March 6.
The vote was
planned for February 3, but was delayed until February 4. The delay arose from
the attempts by some developing countries to revise the resolution and from
counter efforts by the EU-3 to reach a compromise in order to avoid abstentions
from these countries. The U.S.
and EU-3, however, would not budge from the original text. Also, a dispute
arose between the U.S. and Egypt over linking Israel
and its nuclear weapons to nuclear concerns in the Middle
East.The United States did not want any mention of this
in the resolution, while Egypt
wanted it included to give some balance to the resolution. In the end, the
resolution makes no mention of Israel’s
nuclear weapons.
The Iranian
government has stated that the allegations contained in the February 4
resolution of the Board of the Governors of the IAEA and in the preceding January
31 joint statement by the United States,
Britain, France, Russia
and China
are false, violate the provisions of the NPT and the statutes of the IAEA, and
are politically motivated.