Despite putting pressure on Iran to abandon its research on uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel, the US and Israel has voted against a UN resolution urging all Middle East countries to halt development of nuclear weapons.

By a vote of 53-2, the 51st general conference of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), held in Vienna on September 17-21, approved a non-binding resolution sponsored by Egypt calling on all Middle East countries to abide by IAEA safeguards against the development of nuclear weapons.

The only countries that voted against were Israel and the US. Voting for the resolution were China, India, Iran, Russia, Japan and Latin American, Arab and some African countries. With the sole exception of Ireland, which also voted in favour, most European Union countries abstained.

A similar resolution urging all Middle East countries to adopt IAEA safeguards on nuclear work passed overwhelmingly at last year’s IAEA general conference, with only Israel and its chief ally, the US, voting against.

Iran, subject to US-pushed UN Security Council financial sanctions for refusing to halt research on uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel — technology it is legally entitled to under its IAEA safeguards agreement — told the conference that whoever opposed the resolution betrayed a “discriminatory” approach to Middle East security.

Following the adoption of the resolution, Omani ambassador Salim Mohammed al Riyami presented a document entitled “Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat”, outlining concern over the “failure of the universality” of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) since Israel refuses to sign it.

While Israel officially neither confirms nor denies it has nuclear weapons, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert hinted in a German TV interview in December that Israel does have such weapons. Israeli ambassador Israel Michaeli told the IAEA conference that Arab delegates’ assertions that Olmert had admitted Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons were “lies”.

Iranian delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh then called for IAEA inspectors to be dispatched “to Israel to verify who is telling the truth”.

Associated Press reported on September 20: “Evidence that Israel has nuclear arms is overwhelming, much of it based on details and pictures leaked in 1986 by Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu. His revelations have been added to by other leaks, research, and by statements made by Israeli leaders that stopped just short of confirming it.”

To aid their preparation for a future Iraq-style invasion of oil-and-gas-rich Iran, US officials — backed by their imperialist allies in Tel Aviv, Paris and London — have accused Iran of having a secret nuclear weapons program.

However, IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei reported to the conference that his inspectors had “been able to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran” to any military purposes. “Iran”, he added, “has continued to provide the access and reporting needed to enable agency verification in this regard”.

ElBaradei highlighted an August 21 agreement reached between Tehran and the IAEA secretariat on a timetable for resolving all outstanding issues concerning Iran’s nuclear program.

Reuters reported on September 17 that “Western powers led by the United States and France have been fuming over ElBaradei’s new deal with Iran requiring it to answer questions about past secret nuclear research but without touching its accelerated campaign to enrich atomic fuel”.

In an interview with the Italian RAI TV channel that same day, ElBaradei described Western media speculation about an impending US or Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities as “hype”.

Such reports routinely run in the Western corporate media every time there is a meeting of the IAEA’s governing board or the resumption of discussions on Iran’s nuclear program between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Their purpose is to exert pressure on China and Russia, which are opposed to any further extension of UN sanctions against Iran, to agree to them as a “lesser evil” to a US military attack.

However, as with the UN sanctions against Iraq, which were maintained for 13 years, Washington’s goal is to use international sanctions to weaken Iran’s ability to resist a future US-led invasion.

The September 22 Washington Post reported that the “United States and its European allies are preparing to impose their own broad military and economic sanctions against Iran if Russia and China balk at voting for a tough new resolution at the United Nations, according to US and European officials.

“The Bush administration is pushing for the world’s top powers to impose punitive measures that could include sanctioning branches of Iran’s military — such as parts of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force — rather than individual military leaders of those units, as in past resolutions, US and Western officials said.

“Washington is also looking to curtail Iran’s ability to import military equipment, such as Russian air defense systems …

“Washington has wanted a new resolution since June. The time requirement of the previous UN resolution — which demands that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, a process for peaceful nuclear energy that can be subverted to make a bomb — expired in May…

“Frustrated by the delay and the diplomatic divide, Washington and its allies are developing a parallel track to the UN effort in the event that a third resolution ends up only modestly increasing pressure on Iran, after the first two resolutions passed in December and March proved weak and difficult to implement, the sources said.” – Third World Network Features


About the writer: Doug Lorimer wrote the above article for Green Left Weekly Issue #726, 3 October 2007.