UN nuclear agency board set to admonish Iran

The board of governors of the UN atomic agency was expected to approve Thursday a resolution criticising Iran brought by world powers that is also aimed at dissuading Israel from military action. The motion was introduced at the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board on Wednesday after days of haggling between Western nations and Russia and China, which are seen as more lenient on Tehran. The draft text, seen by AFP, expresses "serious concern that Iran continues to defy" UN Security Council resolutions for it to suspend uranium enrichment, a process which can be used for peaceful purposes but also in a nuclear weapon. The board was expected to debate the resolution and vote later on Thursday, although diplomats said some member states could seek to introduce amendments, which might postpone approval until Friday. The text also highlights the IAEA's complaint that activities spotted at the Parchin military base, where it suspects nuclear weapons research took place, would "significantly hamper" inspectors -- should Iran let them visit. Iran says its expanding atomic programme is for peaceful purposes, but since the IAEA says repeatedly that it is unable to vouch for this, the UN Security Council has passed six resolutions, four of them with sanctions attached. The United States and the European Union have also imposed additional unilateral sanctions that have hit Iran's vital oil exports hard, and EU foreign ministers said last weekend that they are considering additional measures. The IAEA's resolution, which Western diplomats said had the backing of all but a couple of members of the board, stops short of a referral of Iran to the Security Council, and is the 12th in nine years. But it is significant that Western nations were able to get Moscow and Beijing on board, and at a time of heightened speculation that Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, might bomb Iran, analysts say. The resolution "reflects the desire of member states to underscore that diplomacy is paramount and it warns Israel in two separate paragraphs that the diplomatic process should be supported," Mark Hibbs from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told AFP.