AUSTRIA: IAEA governors expected to agree to sanctions on Iran

The move by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency should reflect UN sanctions passed in December that ban transfers of technology or expertise to Iran that might be of use in producing nuclear fuel. Diplomats at IAEA Headquarters said on Wednesday (March 7) they expected the IAEA Secretariat would freeze or curb 22 of the 55 aid projects. Western powers who bankroll such aid and have driven sanctions steps demand more sweeping reductions. To squeeze Iran into shelving its campaign to make nuclear fuel, six world powers on Monday launched a week of negotiations at the United Nations in New York on widening preliminary sanctions adopted in December. But a deal remained elusive due to resistance from Russia and China, big trade partners of Iran. The Non-Aligned Movement bloc of developing nations, to which Iran belongs, also opposes cuts, fearing a politicised precedent would be set jeopardising their own access to IAEA aid for nuclear energy seen as key to modernising their economies. Iran condemned the slash in aid projects but blamed the UN Security Council, saying it had illegally eroded the IAEA's professional independence in disbursing aid to promote peaceful nuclear energy development. Only two states in the IAEA's 50-year history have been stripped of nuclear aid due to concern about possible diversions into bombmaking -- North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The agency praised an apparent nuclear climb-down by North Korea, whose own confrontation with the world eased when it agreed on Feb. 13 to dismantle its nuclear arms programme and readmit IAEA inspectors expelled four years ago. Speaking on behalf of the European Union, German Ambassador to the IAEA Peter Gottwald told reporters the EU supported the 6 party Beijing agreement and was hoping it would lead to eventual de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula. "We expressed our appreciation and gratitude to China for organising the talks and to all the 6 parties to come to an agreement which the European Union supports and which we obviously hope will lead to eventual de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula. In the meantime, of course, we reminded the DPRK of the need to comply with the various parts of the agreement, which are well known to you, and in particular, obviously, to honouring its obligations under the NPT (Nuclear Proliferation Treaty) and the corresponding Security Council resolution 1718," said Gottwald. "What is really necessary is to find an agreement between the agency and the DPRK as a host country which will allow the work of the IAEA to implement and do just that," Ambassador Gottwald added. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei goes to North Korea on March 13 to iron out details of Pyongyang's agreement, in return for major fuel aid, to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and readmit IAEA inspectors to seal the complex by mid-April.

ITN Source | March 7, 2007

Tags:. .appreciation. .obviously. .beijing. .adopted. .negotiations