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The United States believes Iran is playing games with the
international community and wants to see it referred to the
Council. U.S. envoy Jackie Sanders told the IAEA's board of
governors that Washington reserved the right to go it alone. "Quite apart from the question of how this board chooses to
handle these matters, of course, the United States reserves all
of its options with respect to Security Council consideration
of the Iranian nuclear weapons program," she said.
"Any member of the United Nations (news - web sites) may bring to the
attention of the Security Council any situation that might
endanger the maintenance of international peace and security." Sanders also issued a stern warning to companies, including
multinationals, against exporting weapons-related equipment to
Iran. The United States "will impose economic burdens on them
and brand them as proliferators," she said.
DIPLOMATIC POKER A spokesman for President Bush (news - web sites) said: "The implementation
and verification of the agreement is critical."
"Iran has failed to comply with its commitments many times
over the course of the past year and a half." The developments capped five days of diplomatic poker over
the terms of a deal Iran struck with the European Union this
month to suspend all activities relating to enriching uranium. Iran had first raised new demands and then backed down
again, at one point throwing the deal into doubt. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran had now withdrawn a
request to be allowed to continue research on 20 enrichment
centrifuges, and inspectors had on Monday installed
surveillance cameras to monitor them. "This is clearly a positive step in the right direction. It
would help mitigate international concern about the nature of
Iran's program, and over time should help to build confidence
... I call naturally on Iran to sustain that suspension," he
told reporters.
Centrifuges are devices that spin at supersonic speeds to
enrich, or purify, uranium for use as fuel in nuclear reactors.
Highly enriched uranium can be used in an atom bomb, although
Iran insists its aim is purely to generate electricity.
DIPLOMATS EXASPERATED
Iran insists it has a "sovereign right" to enrich uranium
and is only suspending such work to assure the world of its
peaceful intentions.
In Tehran, some 500 members of a conservative volunteer
militia pelted the British embassy with stones and firecrackers
on Monday, protesting that the Iran-EU deal was a sellout.
Protesters from the basij militia, mainly black-bearded
men, burned a British flag and tried to charge the embassy
gates but were pushed back by a cordon of some 100 riot police.
"Nuclear energy is our right," the protesters shouted.
At the IAEA in Vienna, there were signs of mounting
exasperation from Western diplomats over Iranian tactics.
Several told Reuters that Iran had only promised not to
test the centrifuges until Dec. 15, when the EU and Iran meet
to discuss a long-term nuclear deal.
Those talks will focus on trade cooperation and peaceful
nuclear technology that the Europeans are willing to offer
Tehran if it gives up uranium enrichment for good.
Washington, diplomats say, will not block such a deal but
it will not actively support it either -- a stance that some
experts believe will eventually kill the agreement. A previous
EU-Iran deal collapsed earlier this year.
(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in London and
Paul Hughes in Tehran)
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