Iran plans to resume uranium enrichment
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-05 06:07

But in return, Moscow and Beijing demanded that the Americans — and France and Britain, the two other veto-wielding Security Council members — agree to let the Iran issue rest until at least March, when the IAEA board meets again to review the agency's investigation of Iran's nuclear program and its compliance with board demands that it renounce uranium enrichment.

The landmark decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board sets the stage for future action by the top U.N. body, which has the authority to impose economic and political sanctions.

Still, any such moves were weeks if not months away. Two permanent council members, Russia and China, agreed to referral only on condition the council take no action before March.

Iran says it wants to enrich only to make nuclear fuel, but concerns that it might misuse the technology accelerated the chain of events that led to Saturday's Security Council referral, after Tehran took IAEA seals off enrichment equipment Jan. 10 and said it would resume small-scale activities.

The IAEA resolution expresses "serious concerns about Iran's nuclear program." It recalls "Iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations" to the nonproliferation treaty. And it expresses "the absence of confidence that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes."

It requests IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to "report to the Security Council" steps Iran needs to take to dispel suspicions about its nuclear ambitions.

The resolution calls on Iran to:

* Reestablish a freeze on uranium enrichment and related activities.

* Consider whether to stop construction of a heavy water reactor that could be the source of plutonium for weapons.

* Formally ratify an agreement allowing the IAEA greater inspecting authority and continue honoring the agreement before it is ratified.

* Give the IAEA additional power in its investigation of Iran's nuclear program, including "access to individuals" for interviews, as well as to documentation on its black-market nuclear purchases, equipment that could be used for nuclear and non-nuclear purposes and "certain military-owned workshops" where nuclear activities might be going on.

The draft also asks IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei to "convey ... to the Security Council" his report to the next board session in March along with any resolution that meeting might approve.

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