The UN nuclear agency expressed "serious concern" on Thursday about Iran's nuclear program, and Iran responded that it would not curtail the program.
After two days of back-room lobbying and discussions, the 35 countries represented on the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear monitoring agency, agreed by consensus on a resolution that "urges Iran to re-establish full suspension of all enrichment-related activities."
The board also set a Sept. 3 deadline for the agency's director-general, Mohamed ElBaradei, to report on whether Iran was carrying out the terms of the resolution.
Taken together, the elements in the board's statement fell short of what the US and its European partners had hoped for only a week or so ago.
At that time, Britain, France and Germany joined together in warning Iran that if it resumed uranium activities, they would seek immediate support at the nuclear agency's board for referring the issue to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Western diplomats said, however, that they were unable to get board approval for such an action after Iran went ahead and resumed its uranium conversion. Iran did so while inviting international inspections to prove that it was not making fuel for weapons.
In effect, these diplomats said, they did not have the votes to get a consensus for a Security Council referral and had to settle for yet another warning to Iran and yet another deadline by which to comply.
Despite this disappointment, US President George W. Bush said in Crawford, Texas, that the board of the atomic agency had taken "a positive first step."
"As you know, there will be a report back after a period of time and we look forward to hearing what the report says," he said, adding that "the world is coalescing" around the demand that Iran not have "the means and the wherewithal" to make nuclear weapons.
It was only shortly after the IAEA issued its statement that Iran responded negatively.
The Iranian representative at the talks, Cyrus Nasseri, called the resolution "absurd."
He told the board members gathered in the UN complex, not far from the Danube River, that Iran would not suspend its uranium conversion activities and that it also questioned the authority of the agency to tell it to stop.
"Iran will not bend," Nasseri said. "Iran will be a nuclear fuel producer and supplier within a decade."
He referred to US suspicions that Iran plans to make nuclear arms as raising a sense of "deja vu."
"Iran is not Iraq," he said. "And the United States is not that self-appointed policeman of the world anymore."
Iran contends that its nuclear activities are for energy purposes, not for nuclear arms. Tehran had agreed to suspend its nuclear activities temporarily while it engaged in negotiations with Britain, France and Germany over the program.
Earlier this month, the European nations offered a package of assistance in return for permanent suspension of the nuclear program.
Iran rejected the offer, saying it did not meet even minimum expectations.
It said it would remove seals and resume uranium conversion at its Isfahan plant, the first step in the nuclear fuel production process.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS