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.
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