Brussels, 05/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - It is looking more and more likely that the Iranian nuclear dossier will be brought before the Security Council of the United Nations since the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed El Baradei, submitted his report on the Iranian nuclear programme to the 35 member states of the Council of governors, in which he states, amongst other things, that Tehran has not respected the cut-off date of 3 September stipulated by the EU-3 (Germany, France and the United Kingdom) and the IAEA for Iran to suspend its uranium conversion activities, which is the first stage of enrichment and which it resumed on 8 August, in breach of the Paris agreement of November 2004. Stressing in his report that the IAEA, which is not yet in a position to clarify certain outstanding issues after two and a half years of intensive inspections and investigations into the Iranian nuclear programme and on clandestine activities Iran has been involved in for 18 years, calls upon Teheran to provide "total transparency" into its activities. Although Mohammed El Baradei's report indicates that nearly 4000 kg of uranium ore had been used in the conversion process at Ispahan as of last Tuesday, he doubts that Tehran has resumed the actual enrichment of uranium, which would allow nuclear fuels to produce, which could then be used to produce nuclear weapons. Moreover, the report states that the inspectors of the IAEA had no right of access to various sites on which potentially suspicious activities were taking place, in Parchine and Lavizan. It states, "without definitive conclusions", that the traces of highly enriched uranium (which can be used for military means) discovered by the IAEA inspectors could originate with equipment imported from Pakistan. Lastly, the report indicates that experiments on plutonium, another source for nuclear weapons, are still being monitored.
Tehran reacted immediately: on Sunday, the Iranian negotiator in chief on the nuclear dossier, Ali Larijani, said that Iran had no intentions of halting its nuclear programme in spite of the criticism, "neither legal nor technical, but which consisted of political intimidation", which had been levelled at the country. However, Mr Larijani assured the IAEA of his country's total cooperation and called for time for the Iranian government to " implement all possibilities (...) of resolving the nuclear issue". Last Thursday, the High Representative of the EU for CFSP, Javier Solana, warned that the EU would have no hesitation in recommending that the dossier be sent before the Security Council of the United Nations, if needs be. The Council of Governors of the IAEA is to meet on 19 September to decide whether the Iranian dossier should be brought before the UN Security Council. Between now and then, further diplomatic efforts must be made, particularly at the United Nations summit to be held in New York from 14 to 16 September, which will be attended by the new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In the meantime, Russia announced on Monday that it was against referring the Iranian nuclear dossier before the highest body of the United Nations. "Moscow sees no reason why the issue of the Iranian nuclear programme should be sent before the United Nations Security Council", Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian Deputy Minister for foreign affairs, told the press agency Interfax. Russia, which has is a right of veto within the Security Council, of which it is one of the five permanent members, has developed considerable nuclear cooperation with the Islamic Republic in terms of energy supply. Moscow has previously warned against any use of force to bring the Iranian nuclear program to a halt.