Vienna, Nov 17: The United States and Europe are inching closer to a deal on a resolution that would criticise Iran's concealment of nuclear research, which Washington says was linked to a weapons programme, diplomats say. On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of governors meets in Vienna to discuss an IAEA report on Iran's nuclear programme, detailing 18 years of failures by Iran to inform the United Nations body of sensitive atomic activities such as uranium enrichment and plutonium production. The United States, which says Iran's nuclear power programme is a front to develop a bomb, is pushing the 35-nation board to pass a resolution declaring that Iran has not complied with its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and report Tehran's breaches to the U.N. Security Council. Iran, which denies having a secret weapons programme, said on Thursday any reference to Iran failing to comply with the NPT would be ''unacceptable'' and that reporting Iran to the security council would be a mistake with ''unpredictable consequences,'' Iran's ambassador to the Iaea, Ali Akbar Salehi, told mediapersons. On October 21, the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France and Germany succeeded in convincing Tehran to halt temporarily its uranium enrichment programme and accept a tougher regime of short-notice IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites.
Bureau Report