Security Council gives Iran 30 days

Nuke MullahMarch 30, 2006 (Stop Fundamentalism) – After three weeks of intense negotiations between 5 veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, all 15 members of the Council unanimously approved a Presidential Statement about Iran’s nuclear program.

The non-binding statement that was approved on Wednesday gives Iran 30 days to stop all nuclear projects and uranium enrichments and return to the negotiating table or face isolation.

The statement stepped back from five precise demands made in an earlier draft, including access to individuals, documentation, and nuclear sites.  However, diplomats said the statement implicitly endorsed them by calling on Tehran to take all steps previously stipulated by the IAEA board.

"We will not, definitely, suspend enrichment," Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, said on Thursday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki condemned the West for taking Iran to the UN Security Council and its “unjustified propaganda.”

The move is “an abuse of international mechanisms, misguided, legally unwarranted, and clearly unacceptable,” Mottaki said, adding that it was caused by the “short-sighted political agenda of certain powerful states.”

John Bolton, the US ambassador, called the statement the "first major step" in the council to deal with Iran’s alleged weapons program, and an "unambiguous signal to Tehran that the Security Council is now dealing with this issue.”

However, Wang Guangya, China’s ambassador insisted the IAEA remained in charge, and that the council statement represented political support for its deliberations.  He said the council’s aim was to "support all diplomatic efforts which will lead to a negotiated solution.”