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‘Iran deceives world on nukes’
The US and its Western allies have bluntly accused Iran of deceiving the world by trying to hide work on nuclear arms, as the UN atomic agency passed a new resolution criticising Tehran’s nuclear defiance.
Iran shot back on Friday that the West’s allegations were based on fabricated American, Israeli, British and French intelligence fed to the International Atomic Energy Agency to try and discredit the Islamic Republic.
Reflecting its bitterness, Iran’s chief IAEA delegate withdrew an invitation to UN atomic agency experts to visit Tehran and discuss nuclear concerns.
He also announced Tehran was boycotting a meeting next week to explore the possibilities of a Mideast nuclear-free zone that will be attended by Israel and all Arab nations, accusing IAEA chief Yukiya Amano of bias for not focusing on Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal.
The unusually tough exchanges were bound to further raise international tensions over Iran’s nuclear activities — even though the Western statements emphasised that the preferred solution was through diplomacy.
France warned Iran to defuse world fears that it is working on nuclear weapons or face “unprecedented” sanctions, while Washington dismissed “the hollowness” of Iranian claims, asserting that Iran must acknowledge its secret weapons development work. Britain, too, urged Iran to “address the grave concerns of the international community about its nuclear programme.”
Statements delivered to the IAEA’s 35-nation board by the US, and on behalf of Germany, Britain and France, contained no mention of military action — an option that has not been discounted by either Israel or the US if Tehran refuses to stop activities that can be used for nuclear weapons.
Still, they pulled no punches, drawing heavily on a recent IAEA report based on intelligence from more than 10 nations that concluded that some alleged clandestine work by Iran could not be used for any other purpose than making nuclear arms.
“It is no longer within the bounds of credulity to claim that Iran’s nuclear activities are solely peaceful,” said Glyn Davies, the chief US delegate to the IAEA, adding: “There is little doubt that Iran ... at the very least, wants to position itself for a nuclear weapons capability.”
He said that the Iranian allegations were nothing more than “old bile in new bottles” — old excuses repackaged for the IAEA meeting.
For the three European nations, German chief delegate Ruediger Luedeking said Iranian actions, ... “deepened disbelief in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme.”
Delegates at the closed meeting easily passed a resolution based on the report urging Iran to end more than three years of stonewalling of IAEA attempts to probe the allegations, and to heed UN Security Council demands to stop other activities that could be used to make nuclear arms. Only Cuba and Ecuador voted against, and Indonesia abstained.
The resolution is milder than the West had hoped for — but it had the support of Russia and China, which Iran traditionally counts on to counter Western pressure.
A senior diplomat at the meeting said that Tehran was particularly unhappy with the success of the West’s tactical move — watering down the language of the resolution in exchange for support from Moscow and Beijing. He asked for anonymity for relaying confidential information.
