VIENNA, Austria – For the first time, 35 nations in the U.N. atomic watchdog agency demanded Saturday that Iran freeze all work on uranium enrichment – a technology that can be used for nuclear arms – and said it would judge Tehran’s compliance in two months.
The resolution passed by the agency, www.iaea.org, was its toughest yet on Tehran, but didn’t go as far as the United States had sought by saying Iran will automatically be sent to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if it fails to meet the demands by November.
U.S. officials, however, insisted the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency must refer Iran to the council when it meets again on Nov. 25 if Tehran doesn’t comply.
“The issue is whether or not they’re going to give up nuclear weapons” by the November meeting, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said. “The ball is in Iran’s court.”
“The time for decisive action is approaching,” said Jackie Sanders, the chief U.S. delegate to the agency board meeting. “To wait until the IAEA finds the nuclear weapons … is to wait until it is too late.”
The United States says Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing weapons, a claim Tehran denies.
The resolution passed unanimously Saturday said the board “considers it necessary” that Iran suspend all uranium enrichment and related programs. And it expressed alarm at Iranian plans to convert more than 40 tons of raw uranium into uranium hexafluoride – the gas that when spun in centrifuges turns into enriched uranium.
It also said it “strongly urges” Iran to meet all demands by the agency in its investigation of the country’s nearly two decades of clandestine nuclear activity, including unrestricted access to sites, information and personnel that can shed light on still unanswered questions on whether Tehran was interested in developing nuclear weapons.
Suggesting that Iran could answer to the U.N. Security Council should it defy the demands, the resolution said the next board meeting in November “will decide whether or not further steps are appropriate” in ensuring Iran complies.
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