Global Policy Forum

Citing "an alarming number" of unresolved questions about Iran's nuclear program, the United States warned Wednesday that the United Nations atomic agency cannot put off "forever" taking Tehran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

U.S. Ambassador Jackie Sanders told the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran has continued to deny IAEA inspectors "the transparency and cooperation they need to perform their duties" and that Tehran was "cynically" manipulating "the nuclear nonproliferation regime in the pursuit of nuclear weapons." Sanders, who is based in Geneva but heads the U.S. delegation to the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors meeting in Vienna this week, said the IAEA cannot put off "forever" bringing Iran before the Security Council, as the U.S. wants.

Washington has been calling for almost two years for Iran to be taken to the Security Council, as it claims Tehran is in clear violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). "The board cannot ignore forever its statutory responsibility to report this matter" to the Security Council, Sanders said, according to a text of her comments.

The Security Council would have "the authority to require that Iran take all necessary corrective measures, including those steps called for by the [IAEA] board that Iran has failed to take," Sanders said. She said these included "the authority to require and enforce a suspension of Iran's enrichment-related and reprocessing activities," which make what can be fuel for reactors or in highly refined form the explosive core of atomic bombs.

Sanders said IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei should report to the agency's board ahead of its next meeting in June, after not having reported to the current meeting, as this would clear the way for action against Iran if necessary. In London, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated Wednesday that Washington is working with European leaders on a plan to offer Iran economic incentives in exchange for abandoning its nuclear ambitions. "We are designing, I think, an important common strategy with Europe so that Iran knows there is no other way," Rice said in a brief interview aired Wednesday on the U.S. network NBC television.

Bush was to consult with Rice later Wednesday on her talks with European officials about how to coax Iran to give up nuclear ambitions, a senior administration official said. Bush is believed to be close to deciding whether to join Europe in offering incentives to Iran, including membership of the World Trade Organization, in exchange for Tehran's agreement to give up nuclear weapons.

Rice discussed the issue on Tuesday at a dinner with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany on the sidelines of a Middle East conference in London. The head of the Iranian delegation, Cyrus Nasseri, told reporters that the U.S. wanted to get the issue before the Security Council because it "might be in the driver's seat there" while Washington was isolated at the IAEA. ElBaradei meanwhile also told reporters it was not up to Tehran to come clean on nuclear issues by allowing wider access to IAEA inspectors.

The IAEA has failed in two years of investigation to reach a conclusion as to whether Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program and ElBaradei said Tehran must now move forward with "transparency" measures which allow widespread inspections beyond what is required under the NPT. IAEA deputy director Pierre Goldschmidt had Tuesday outlined to the board key areas where Iran is refusing to cooperate with UN inspectors. These include blocking a follow-up visit to the Parchin military facility where Washington charges Tehran is simulating testing of nuclear weapons.

Parchin is a "transparency" issue since it is not a site where there are definitely nuclear materials, and tracing nuclear materials is the limit of the IAEA mandate from the NPT. Nasseri said Iran was not allowing a second visit to Parchin, after a first one in January, in part because it was concerned about information leaks "in view of potential threats of military strikes against safeguarded and other facilities visited by the agency in Iran." "The notions of threat of attacks against Iran's safeguarded and other facilities by a major nuclear weapons state are still there," Nasseri said, in a clear reference to the U.S. A separate statement by the three European nations engaging Iran expressed "serious concern" at some of the developments outlined by the report. But Nasseri described the still open questions about Iran's nuclear program as a "few grains of salt ... on the verge of being dissolved."

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