Iran urged to build more nuclear power plants
Iran-UN, Politics, 11/7/2006

The US Department Of State spokesman Sean McCormack said today that a draft resolution from the Europeans went to the full Security Council today.

Asked that US ambassador to the UN Bolton came out and said that the Russians seemed to be breaking with their past agreements on this and that Bolton said their position today is not consistent with what the foreign ministers decided earlier and if the United States still not a co-sponsor of this resolution, McCormack said "We're going to work through all of these things. I mean, again we're, you know, we have the ups and downs of the multilateral negotiating process, but all that matters is at the end of the day we are going to get a Security Council resolution that imposes sanctions under Article 41 of Chapter 7 on Iran for its failure to comply with the previous Security Council resolutions. So for us that's the objective. We're going to get there. We're going to get there with the P-5+1. We have an agreement with them. There's an understanding. Everybody knows what that is. And the understanding is that we now, absent Iranian compliance with what the international community has demanded of them, go to a sanctions resolution. Now the Russians have their own views on how hard to press the Iranians and how fast to do that. We understand that. We understand the logic behind it. We think it is important, however, for the credibility of the Security Council and the entire international community that we now go to a sanctions resolution. The object here -- the ultimate diplomatic objective here is to get the Iranians to live up to their commitments, to come clean with the IAEA and to have a peaceful nuclear energy program under conditions that give the international community objective assurances that they are not trying to develop a nuclear weapon. We, as well as others, have grave concerns about their activities right now. So that's what we're trying to get them to do, get them to change their behavior. And the way we're trying to do that it is to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure on them, gradually to increase the diplomatic pressure on them. And as I've said, part of this is going to be a Security Council resolution that we're going to get to."

Asked in terms of what Bolton said, does the Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice agree with his comments, McCormack said "Look, we're in the diplomatic process with the Russians as well as others. Do we wish that we had had a resolution by now? Sure. Of course we do. But we are going to get to one. I'm not going to put it -- the next question is well, what -- how long is it going to take? Is it going to be by Thanksgiving? We're going to get there. I'm not going to put a time on it. We believe that the matter merits some degree of urgency just because as we have these discussions, the Iranians are proceeding along their merry way, you know, spinning their centrifuges, getting every single day a little bit better at this. Our objective is to make sure that they don't get really good at it and be able to perfect their techniques so that they can produce highly enriched uranium with those centrifuges. We believe the way you stop that is by increasing the diplomatic pressure on them. It's important to speak with one voice on this matter; ultimately. There can be debates along the way, we understand that. But ultimately the signal that is sent to the Iranians must be a clear, strong one."

Asked that ambassador Bolton comes out today and basically accuses Russia of backtracking, and that he is either expressing the views of the Secretary or he's freelancing, McCormack said " the Secretary believes we're going to get a resolution. Everybody understands what their commitments are, including the Russians, and we expect everybody is going to follow through on them."

This comes as the International Energy Agency (IAE) urged governments today to build more nuclear plants to slow climate change and increase energy security, throwing its weight behind the push for nuclear power.
In its annual World Energy Outlook, a 596-page response to a G8 call for a sustainable energy blueprint, the watchdog said unless leaders took action world demand for fossil fuels would rise by more than 50 percent, along with carbon emissions. It is the first time the IEA, set up after the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, has backed nuclear power in such strong terms. This year's report devotes a whole chapter to nuclear energy.
"We don't see how we can avoid (nuclear) if we want a sustainable long-term future."

Meantime, a leading German Mideast expert today called the likely imposition of sanctions against Iran as a merely "diplomatic gesture."
"Any kind of sanctions (against Iran) are more or less a diplomatic gesture... Russia and China which have huge interests in Iran, will not allow any real grave sanctions," said Berthold Meyer of the Frankfurt Peace Institute said. The 62-year-old Meyer added Germany and other European countries also won't support trade or oil sanctions against Iran which could affect their lucrative economic deals with Iran or their energy supplies. "Any kind of sanction will be extremely soft and will in no way lead to a deterioration of the (economic) situation in Iran," the scholar said.
"Imposing any soft sanctions against Iran will only serve as face-saving measure for Europeans who had threatened earlier with sanctions," Meyer added. "If the goal of the West was to contain Iran by levelling sanctions, then the western countries did not achieve their objective," the expert stressed.

This comes as very intensive talks are taking place on Iran's nuclear program among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, EU diplomatic sources said in Brussels today.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia has raised some "important objections" to the draft resolution prepared by the EU troika -- France, Germany and the UK -- seeking to impose sanctions on Iran.
A text is being circulated but some time is needed for talks, said the sources. Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Brussels that "what the EU troika drew up went way beyond what had been agreed."
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said today that "there is nothing new that I know of," on developments in the Iran nuclear issue.
"They are discussing it in New York. I am not part of the Security Council so I am not taking part in those discussions," he added.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is expected in Moscow on Thursday for talks with Russian officials. Mottaki is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The two sides will discuss avenues for expansion of Tehran-Moscow relations, Iran's nuclear case and leading regional and international developments.
After their talks, the ministers will attend a joint press conference. Mottaki and Lavrov will most likely discuss the draft resolution prepared by the European troika and presented to United Nations Security Council members on Iran's peaceful nuclear activities.
Russia believes the draft resolution will not achive the goals previously set by the 5+1 Group (UNSC permanent members Russia, China, Britain, France and the United States plus Germany) and has indicated it will not support it.

Several days ago, two inspectors who arrived on Friday from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz and inspected operation of second cascade of centrifuges for enrichment of uranium at research and development (R&D) stage.
The inspection took place in line with Iranian commitment to Safeguards Agreement of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
An official with Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) said that the inspectors will provide a report to IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to be included in a report ElBaradei is expected to deliver to the upcoming meeting of IAEA Board of Governors scheduled for November 30.

Iran's Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani said that Iran is ready to give guarantees to the European states that Iranian nuclear program will never divert from NPT and Safeguards Agreement of the UN nuclear agency.

Cameras of the IAEA are installed on all Iranian nuclear sites to monitor them. ElBaradei has acknowledged that there has been no diversion in Iranian nuclear program and the uranium enrichment is at low level merely to produce fuel for the power plants.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini Sunday said in response to the question about the reason Iran doesn't reconcile with the US, given that the US does its best to disrupt negotiations on its nuclear issue, he said that the US can end such interference and encourage European states to pursue the correct path.

He underlined that given the US decisive role in disrupting relevant talks, it should not be allowed to play a major role in such a sabotage. About the future talks between Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and the European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, he said that no official schedule has yet been declared. Replying to another question about the UN Security Council draft resolution on Iran, which underlines both sanctions and possibility of talks, he referred to it as a carrot and stick approach and said that it doesn't work. Dismissing such an approach, Hosseini said that the issue can only be solved by returning to unconditional talks.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei here Monday evening said that the Islamic Republic of Iran harbors no animosity with any country but will seriously defend its interests whenever threatened. During a meeting with the visiting Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and his accompanying delegation, the Supreme Leader urged cooperation and coordination among independent states, saying greater coherence would effectively guard their interests to the benefit of their nations.

This came as Indonesian House of Representative Speaker Agung Laksono said Indonesia's parliament like the government of this country strongly supports Iran's peaceful nuclear technology.

Previous Stories:
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  Ahmadi-Nejad on transparency of Iranian nuclear program   (10/19/2006)

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