Haaretz
Tevet 28, 5766
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.