AUSTRIA: Iran and IAEA are in stalemate over nuclear issues.

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says involvement of the U.N. Security Council in Iran's nuclear issue is counter-productive and should stop as soon as possible. IAEA head Mohamed Elbaradei says Iran and the nuclear watchdog are at stalemate. The U.N. nuclear watchdog's board of governors met on Monday (March 5) in Vienna. In a meeting likely to run for several days, the Board is expected to ratify aid cuts to Iran and welcome North Korea's decision to abandon its nuclear weapons programmes. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), told reporters in Vienna on Monday (March 5) that the involvement of the U.N. Security Council in Iran's nuclear issue was "counter-productive" and "should stop as soon as possible". "We have declared, and we will repeat again, that the interference and involvement of the United Nations Security Council is counter-productive", the envoy told reporters after the IAEA's first board of governors session at Monday's meeting. Addressing reporters minutes later, the head of the IAEA, Mohamed Elbaradei, said confidence between the agency and Iran would be restored only when Iran takes the decision to explain and answer all the agency's questions and concerns about its activities. "On Iran I expressed my views that we are going through a stalemate period where we are not in a position to make progress with regard to resolving outstanding issues," said ElBaradei. "This is clearly an issue of concern to me because we have been going through a verification process in Iran for the past four years, and unless Iran takes the decision to explain to the agency and provide answers to our concerns, we will continue to be in a position where we will have to reserve judgement about the nature of that programme." At the meeting, likely to last four days, governors were expected to approve cuts to 22 of 55 IAEA technical aid projects in Iran. This would uphold a December U.N. ban on giving Iran technology and know-how of use in making atomic fuel. ENDS

ITN Source | March 5, 2007

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