From the article:
Washington was particularly dismayed that Britain, its staunchest ally in
Iraq, was siding with the French and Germans over Iran, they said.
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IAEA Rebuffs Washington Over Iran Nukes
U.N. Nuclear Agency Likely to Adopt Weaker Iran Resolution Than Sought by
United States
The Associated Press
VIENNA, Austria Nov. 19 - In a rebuff to Washington, the 35 leading nations
of the U.N atomic agency are ready to back a West European resolution that
would urge Iran to continue cooperation but refrain from harshly condemning
it for concealing parts of its nuclear program, diplomats said Wednesday.
The United States had hoped that the board of governors of the International
Atomic Energy Agency would find Tehran in violation of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty at its meeting, which opens Thursday.
Though Washington appears to have given up on winning that, it still feels
the European resolution is too weak, with no threat of punishment for Iran
if there is future noncompliance, said one diplomat.
IAEA head Mohamad ElBaradei is also alarmed by the lack of stronger language
in the European proposal, another diplomat familiar with ElBaradei's
thinking said.
No more than three nations on the 35-member IAEA board Canada, Australia and
Japan support Washington's stance, diplomats across the spectrum said.
Instead, the majority favor the resolution authored by France, Germany and
one of Washington's closest allies, Britain. Russia and China are among the
backers for that resolution, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.
The draft minimizes nearly two decades of covert nuclear programs that the
Bush administration says point to an effort to develop nuclear weapons. It
focuses on positive steps taken by Iran over the past few weeks to deflect
international suspicions, including suspending uranium enrichment and
agreeing to inspections on demand by IAEA inspectors.
The three West European sponsors of the draft "want to see continued
cooperation and transparency from Iran," said a senior Western diplomat
familiar with the resolution.
He said the draft would make clear that the board would not accept
"repetition of past mistakes, deceit or tricks," and would urge Iran to
immediately open its nuclear programs to pervasive inspections even before
the agreement is ratified.
It would also ask Iran to maintain its commitment to suspending uranium
enrichment one of the activities that raised suspicions when discovered
early this year.
While the Americans have no dispute with those demands, they are dismayed
that the draft glosses over activities such as uranium enrichment and
experimental plutonium processing that they say violate the Nonproliferation
Treaty, the diplomats said.
The dispute surfaced Wednesday in Brussels, where Secretary of State Colin
Powell and European foreign ministers failed to agree on how to deal with
Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is for generating electricity as
its oil stocks decline.
Both sides do not want Iran to develop nuclear weapons, but the EU favors
"constructive dialogue," said EU foreign policy representative Javier
Solana.
But IAEA director general ElBaradei also seeks a tougher stance. He took the
Iranians to task for effective breaches of the Nonproliferation Treaty in a
report that also, however, concluded that there was no proof Iran had a
weapons agenda.
ElBaradei wants "a strongly worded report" that stops short of asking for
Security Council involvement, a step that could lead to sanctions against
Iran, one diplomat said.
Traditionally, the board makes decisions by consensus, but that appeared
increasingly unlikely with no sign of a narrowing of the trans-Atlantic
rift.
The diplomats said the United States was ready to push for a meeting that
ends without an Iran resolution rather than agree to something it considered
spineless.
The West Europeans fear too much pressure would turn Iran from cooperation
to confrontation. But several diplomats suggested the dispute also reflected
West European independence similar to that shown by the French-German
attempt to scuttle the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Washington was particularly dismayed that Britain, its staunchest ally in
Iraq, was siding with the French and Germans over Iran, they said.
The Americans see the draft as "another (European) chance to stick your
thumb in the eyes of the United States."
Ahead of the meeting, an Iranian opposition group accused Tehran of
continuing to deceive the IAEA. Firouz Mahvi of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran told reporters in Vienna that a nuclear site toured by
agency inspectors near Karaj was a decoy.
IAEA officials said they could not immediately evaluate the claims and said
the oppositon group had a mixed record of accuracy. The U.S. State
Department lists the group and its armed wing, the People's Mujahedeen, as a
terrorist organization.
On the Net:
IAEA, www.iaea.org
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20031119_1427.html
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In violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925 (which outlaws chemical
warfare), the Reagan-Bush administration authorized the sale of poisonous
chemicals and deadly biological viruses, from anthrax to bubonic plague (to
Iraq), throughout the '80s. In 1982, while Saddam Hussein constructed his
machinery of war, Reagan and Bush removed Iraq from the State Department's
list of terrorist states.
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/02.20.03/iraq-0308.html
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