UN works on draft to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Picture / Reuters

UNITED NATIONS - Major powers began work today on a UN Security Council resolution that would demand Iran suspend uranium enrichment as well as temporarily halt construction on a reactor that can produce plutonium.

The draft under consideration is an updated version of one introduced by the United States, Britain and France in early May but never adopted. It includes threats of sanctions to curb Iran's nuclear program, which the West fears is a prelude to bomb-making.

The text will also set a date, not yet determined but possibly within 30 days, for Iran to comply, according to one Western participant in the closed-door talks.

Today's meeting included Germany and the five Security Council members with veto power - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, the main negotiators on Iran.

US Ambassador John Bolton said the session sort of "fizzled" because the Russia and China were not "prepared to discuss the substance." Participants at the meeting said envoys from both nations said they had not yet received instructions.

Another round of consultations was scheduled for tomorrow, "so we are starting to work on a resolution," said French UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, this month's Security Council president.

At a July 12 meeting in Paris, all six countries agreed Iran had given no indication it would engage seriously on a commercial and technological incentive package offered to Tehran if it were willing to suspend its nuclear programs.

The six agreed to adopt a Security Council resolution that would make the suspension mandatory.

If Iran still refused, they said, "we will work for adoption of measures under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter," which calls for sanctions.

But the Paris text leaves open whether Russia and China will agree to eventually adopt punitive measures.

Bolton told reporters after the meeting he hoped for adoption of the resolution this week "and we don't see that there should be major objections to that."

He said the draft would require Iran to suspend "uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing activities."

Iran is building a heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak, 120 miles southwest of Tehran. Western nations are concerned the plant's plutonium by-product could be used to produce nuclear warheads.

Spent fuel can be reprocessed to extract weapons-grade plutonium. The plutonium can also be mixed with enriched uranium to produce fuel for a special type of nuclear reactor.

Iran, which maintains its program is to produce energy only, on Tuesday showed no sign of suspending its nuclear activities.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that "having a nuclear fuel cycle is the Iranian nation's obvious right," according to the official IRNA news agency.

The incentive package offered to Iran says the six nations would help Tehran build an unspecified number of light water nuclear reactors and give Iran assurances of a reliable supply of nuclear fuel, among other measures.

However, Iran has said it would not reply to the offer until August 22, precipitating calls for UN action.

- REUTERS