U.S. rejects Iran inspection offer
Wants involvement of U.N. watchdog -- not Security Council
original
(CNN) -- Iran will allow snap inspections of its nuclear facilities if the U.N. Security Council does not get involved in the country's nuclear program, a senior Iranian official has said.
But Washington was quick to reject the offer.
"Today's statement does not change our position that the Iranian government must give up its nuclear ambitions, nor does it affect our decision to move forward to the United Nations Security Council," The Associated Press reported White House spokesman Blaine Rethmeier as saying.
Iran wants to deal solely with the U.N. nuclear inspection group -- the International Atomic Energy Agency --according to Muhammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency.
"If the agency is again responsible for Iran's dossier and the Security Council is no longer involved, we are ready to finalize and solve the remaining issues with the agency during a three-week period," Saeedi said, referring to the IAEA.
His offer came a day after the IAEA delivered a report to the U.N. Security Council finding that Iran hasn't heeded demands to stop uranium enrichment. (Watch what the United Nations is trying to do about Iran -- 1:28)
Iran said its nuclear program is only for peaceful energy purposes. But many nations in the West, suspecting Iran wants to build nuclear weapons, want it to stop enriching uranium, a critical step toward producing electricity as well as nuclear bombs.
Earlier this year, Iran blocked snap inspections after the Security Council began taking up the matter. Scheduled inspections, however, were not stopped.
The five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China -- and Germany plan to take on the issue on May 9 at the United Nations.
On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Iranian counterpart that Iran must take concrete steps aimed at restoring international trust to Iran's nuclear activities, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry's Web site.
Those steps included the suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment program and full cooperation with IAEA on Iran's nuclear program, according to the Web site.
An official statement said Lavrov and Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki discussed the matter during a phone conversation initiated by Iran.
Diplomacy 'beginning'
Describing a "sense of urgency," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said work on a draft resolution was under way to address Iran's failure to comply with a Security Council demand to halt its uranium enrichment program.
Such a measure would be adopted under U.N. Charter's Chapter 7, which would make resolutions mandatory -- as opposed to discretionary -- under international law.
U.S. President George W. Bush said Friday that diplomatic efforts are "just beginning," adding that the IAEA report that Iran is not heeding to demands to stop enrichment "should remind us all that the Iranian government's intransigence is not acceptable."
He called the report a reminder "that the world is united and concerned about their desire to have not only a nuclear weapon, but the capacity to make a nuclear weapon or the knowledge to make a nuclear weapon; all of which we're working hard to convince them not to try to achieve." (Watch Bush discuss his next step on Iran -- 3:32)
Previously, Bush had said no options were off the table, including military action.
The United States and other countries contend Iran's program is a guise to hide the country's development of nuclear weapons.
On April 11, Iran declared it had produced enriched uranium in concentrations capable of running a nuclear power plant.
Bush said Friday that he was consulting with allies. "Diplomacy is my first choice and should be the first choice of any president," he added.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said it was "very serious that the Iranian regime has failed fully to co-operate with the IAEA and the United Nations Security Council."
Before the report's release Friday, Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad said no measures would stop Iran from continuing its nuclear program.
"Iran is a nuclear country. This slogan that nuclear energy is our inalienable right is the outcry of the people and a national demand," Ahmadinejad said during a trip to the northwestern Iranian town of Khorramdareh.
"Achieving nuclear technology is today the will of all Iranians, whether they're young, old, man, woman or child. You can hear their voice here supporting the nuclear activities of Iran. Listen!" he said, stirring a crowd of thousands.
CNN's Liz Neisloss and Elise Labott contributed to this report.
Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment