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United States Senate unanimously passes resolution condemning
Iran
By The Associated Press
01/28/06 "Haaretz"
-- -- The U.S. Senate on Friday unanimously
passed a resolution condemning Iran for its nuclear program and
backing efforts to report it to the United Nations Security
Council.
The resolution, approved by a voice vote, cites Iran's "many
failures ... to comply faithfully with its nuclear
non-proliferations obligations."
It "strongly urges" the International Atomic Energy Agency at
its special meeting on Thursday to refer Iran to the UN Security
Council over suspicions it is secretly trying to develop atomic
bombs.
The resolution also calls on all Security Council members,
particularly Russia and China, to "act expeditiously" to deal
with Iran's suspected noncompliance with the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, the five
veto-wielding powers of the 15-member Security Council, plus
Germany plan to meet in London on Monday to try to resolve
differences over whether to send Iran to the council. Russia and
China to date have opposed a formal referral.
UN nuclear chief calls on U.S. to provide Iran with reactors
DAVOS - UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday called on
the United States to provide Iran with nuclear reactors, and
urged Tehran to declare a moratorium on enriching uranium for at
least eight years.
He said eight or nine years would enable the country to earn the
confidence of the international community that it was really
interested in nuclear energy - not nuclear weapons.
The Iranians argue that they need to develop an enrichment
capability because they cannot be assured of a guaranteed supply
of fuel for a peaceful nuclear energy program, ElBaradei said at
a panel at the World Economic Forum.
"I would separate the issues of using nuclear technology for
energy and to produce weapons," he said. "I would call upon the
United States to provide Iran with reactors, and I would call
upon Iran to declare a moratorium on enrichment for at least
eight or nine years" until the country can earn the global
community's confidence.
Iran provoked an international outcry on Jan. 10 when it cut
seals of the International Atomic Energy Agency at its main
enrichment plant and resumed small-scale enrichment of uranium -
a process that can be used to produce fuel for generating
electricity or material for atomic bombs.
Britain, France and Germany - who have been leading European
Union efforts to get Iran to abandon uranium conversion and
enrichment activities - succeeded in getting the IAEA's board to
meet Feb. 2 to discuss taking action against Iran, a move
supported by the United States. The four countries want Iran to
be referred to the UN Security Council.
On Thursday, ElBaradei said he was hopeful that a Russian
proposal could help break the standoff over Iran's nuclear
research and enrichment plans. He cited a statement earlier in
the day by Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, who said
Russia's proposal to move Iran's enrichment program to Russian
territory was "a positive one."
He warned Friday that the nuclear crisis and other pressing
issues regarding Iran could not be resolved through
"escalation."
What advice would the IAEA director-general give Western
officials?
"You need to keep all options on the table, but you are paid to
make policy decisions," he said. "I would hold my horses to
allow for the continuation of negotiations."
At least one leading U.S. senator from President George W.
Bush's party appeared to rule out negotiations.
"They're interested in acquiring weapons of mass destruction and
dominating the Middle East," Arizona Republican John McCain told
a panel. "I don't know of any carrot that works."
On Thursday, ElBaradei said the Russia proposal was "very
attractive" because Iran needed to go through "a rehabilitation
period," but his comments Friday went further.
Iran's first reactor, built by Russia, is due to come online
later this year.
Alyson Bailes, director of the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute in Sweden, called Friday for new technologies
and advanced reactors that would be built to rule out the high
enrichment of uranium.
ElBaradei did not elaborate on having the U.S. build future
reactors for Iran, but presumably this would enable Washington
to build in safeguards to prevent Iran from getting
weapons-grade uranium.
ElBaradei backed the quest for new technologies, but more
immediately he called for international control over all nuclear
activities and the creation of a nuclear fuel bank to ensure
supplies of uranium to all countries.
While the IAEA is focused primarily on "symptoms," he said the
international community should also deal with the underlying
causes that spur nuclear proliferation.
"We have three conflicts that have been going on at least for
50, 60, 70 years. That's the Korean issue, the Middle East
issue, the south Asia Kashmir issue," he said.
"If you fix these three issues, in my view, at least in my area,
80 to 90 percent of the proliferation threat will go away," he
said Thursday.
"It is unacceptable, frankly, from my perspective to see
conflict going on for 60, 70 years," ElBaradei said.
While there were many driving forces that create extremists, he
said, "my personal take on it - it's really the sense of
humiliation. It's not just poverty. It's the sense of injustice
and humiliation."
"Lots of that is taking place both on the hands of national
governments, lack of good governance, suppression of human
rights. Lots of that is coming also from the outside.
And if you have that coming both ways, you see a lot of
extremists," ElBaradei said.
In a more globalized and polarized world, where technology
spreads rapidly, extremists were "gaining ground" in many areas,
he warned.
"We need to worry because there's a lot of material that easily
go into nuclear weapons that is all over the place. We know that
the technology on how to weaponize is out of the tube. We know
that terrorists are highly sophisticated and are interested in
acquiring nuclear weapons or nuclear material - either to steal
one or to make a crude bomb," he said.
ElBaradei called for a new and different framework to manage
nuclear technology and improved information sharing.
"We are running in a race against time," he said.
© Copyright 2006 Haaretz
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