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Last update - 12:47 17/11/2007
Israel worried cautious IAEA report may delay Iran sanctions
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Tags: Iran, United States, Israel 

Jerusalem is concerned that the delicate language taken by the International Atomic Energy Agency in its report against Iran's nuclear problem will delay the imposition of sanctions against the current Iranian regime, Army Radio reported on Friday.

While praising Iran for answering some questions about the history of its nuclear program, the IAEA report released Thursday confirmed that Iran continues to defy the international community by ignoring its demands to stop enriching uranium, a potential pathway to nuclear arms.

"It is clear that Iran continues to openly violate its obligations under two unanimous Security Council resolutions and that this continued violation must have consequences," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev said.
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"Israel believes it is incumbent upon the international community to send a crystal clear message to the leadership in Tehran that their nuclear program is unacceptable and must cease immediately."

In response to the report, Deputy Foreign Minister Majalli Whbee has called on IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei to step down. "The forgiving report presents another example of the feeble policies of the committee and its chairman against Iran. That is criminal negligence, which endangers world peace."

Former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh said that Israel must stop relying on world powers to act against Tehran. "It's an ostrich policy," he told Army Radio. "Who are they threatening, the master of the universe? What more does a Jew need to do when he hears the president of a country, a member of the United Nations, the fourth largest oil producer in the world, say that this country must be wiped off the earth, and we remain silent? What a stupid policy."

The White House said Thursday that it would still push for a third round of sanctions against Iran despite the UN nuclear watchdog's report, which said Tehran was being generally truthful about key aspects of its past nuclear work.

"We believe that selective cooperation is not good enough," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

Top Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili said the IAEA report shows that new sanctions against Tehran would be illegal action.

The United States said it will continue with its allies to press for new UN Security Council sanctions unless Iran suspends enrichment and provides a full and detailed disclosure of past suspicious nuclear activities.

Much of the 10-page IAEA report focused on the history of Iran's black-market procurements and past development of its enrichment technology - and the agency appeared to be giving Tehran a pass on that issue, repeatedly saying it concludes that Iran's statements are consistent with information available to the agency.

"We believe that Iran should be fully cooperating and not stringing along the IAEA during this process," Perino said. "It just pushes Iran into further isolation."

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack noted the report did not say Tehran had addressed all concerns and also said the IAEA's ability to gauge the current Iranian program had diminished.

"I don't think the world is prepared to give Iran partial credit on a test involving whether or not they're developing nuclear weapons," he said.

"While the Iranians are trying to turn everybody's attention to their partial answers on some of their past activities, the ability of the IAEA to gain insight into what they're currently doing on the ground in Iran with respect to their nuclear program is starting to diminish," McCormack said.

Shortly after the report was issued, Britain's Foreign Office said it would pursue further sanctions from the Security Council and the European Union. The Security Council has five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S.

The IAEA report is one of two on Iran's nuclear program this month. The other is expected soon from European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has been tasked with trying to convince Iran to accept offers for cooperation on civil atomic power projects in return for Iranian suspension of uranium enrichment.

After Solana delivers his report, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany are expected to meet to assess Iran's behavior and decide whether to move ahead with a resolution imposing sanctions on Iran.

McCormack said Washington believed Solana's report would reflect Iranian noncooperation.

"They are continuing to operate centrifuges, they are continuing to expand those operations, as is noted in the IAEA report," McCormack said, "so I wouldn't expect that Mr. Solana's report is going to do anything but note that the Iranians are continuing to defy the international community."

U.S.: China would be responsible for diplomacy failure if it rejects new sanctions
China would be responsible if diplomatic solutions fail in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions, the U.S. ambassador to the UN warned Thursday, saying Washington expects and will seek Beijing's cooperation for new sanctions.

The warning by Zalmay Khalilzad to China and others opposing new sanctions against Iran came shortly after the release of a much-anticipated International Atomic Energy Agency report that found Tehran was generally truthful about its nuclear history, but continued to defy the UN Security Council's demand to halt uranium enrichment.

"There has been dragging of feet by the Chinese on a new council resolution," Khalilzad told reporters. "I don't think that China would want to be in a position to cause the failure of diplomacy to deal with this issue."

While the council's five permanent, veto-wielding members have been trying to find a way to get Iran to abandon uranium enrichment, China and Russia - two of the so-called P-5 members - have repeatedly voiced opposition to a third round of sanctions. This has frustrated efforts by the council's other permanent members - the United States, France and Britain - to further pressure a defiant Iran.

Khalilzad said that based on the U.S.'s review of the report released Thursday to the IAEA's 35-member board, Iran has not fully cooperated and that additional sanctions under chapter 7 of the UN's charter are warranted.

Khalilzad did not outline what the resolution would propose or what form the sanctions would take. But chapter 7 resolutions can allow the use of force.

"We have said that we prefer to resolve this issue diplomatically, Khalilzad said. We have said that we are in the phase of diplomacy, and I'm saying for diplomacy to work, it needs the broadest cooperation - certainly by the P-5."

"I say that those who do not cooperate with diplomacy..... would have responsibility for failure of diplomacy," he said.

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  • Iran condemns new U.S. sanctions as 'hostile policy'
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