Archive for May 8th, 2008
Russia, China Criticize Britain Over Remarks On Iran
Russia, China Criticize Britain Over Remarks On Iran
The British ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, John Duncan, came in for some sharp criticism from Russia and China for distorting reports about the decisions of G5 plus Germany on Iran’s nuclear program.
Chinese and Russian permanent representative at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva said Monday that the statements by the British envoy do not reflect the views of China and Russia.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the foreign ministers of the U.S., Britain, Russia, China, France, and Germany agreed on Friday to offer Iran a new package of incentives for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment process.
Miliband said the group “reviewed and updated” an offer made to Iran in June 2006. Duncan’s comments are in line with Britain’s stance on Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors’ meetings.
However, Duncan claimed that the G5+1 group declared that Iran’s nuclear program has created “serious problems” and that the message to Iran is that it should live up to its commitments.
“Iran should either respond positively to the proposed incentives or it will face more punishment by the Security Council,” Duncan added.
But the Russian and Chinese ambassadors begged to differ with Duncan’s remarks.
The reality of the G5+1 meeting in London was just the opposite of what John Duncan depicted it as, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said adding that the G5+1 in London agreed, “to use political and diplomatic solution to resolve Iran’s nuclear issue” and therefore it was decided to propose a new package of incentives to Iran.
Antonov said every delegation is entitled to its own views but when they are talking on behalf of others about a sensitive issue like Iran’s nuclear program they should not “distort the realities.”
The Russian envoy reminded Britain that it has not been given a mission by the G5+1 group to make such statements in this meeting.
The Chinese ambassador Wang Chen corroborated Antonov’ statements, saying, “The participants at London meeting welcomed diplomatic solutions, therefore the British representative’s remarks are not consistent with the realities of the London meeting.”
Chen also expressed the hope that negotiations to Iran’s nuclear issue will be resumed soon and a comprehensive solution will be arrived.
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Breaking News: Iran rejects nuclear inspections unless Israel also submits to international safeguards
Breaking News: Iran rejects nuclear inspections unless Israel also submits to international safeguards
ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS
AP News
An Iranian envoy said Monday his government will not submit to extensive nuclear inspections while Israel stays outside the global treaty to curb the spread of atomic weapons.
“The existing double standard shall not be tolerated anymore by non-nuclear-weapon states,” Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told a meeting of the 190 countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Nuclear safeguards are far from universal, he said, adding that more than 30 countries are still without a comprehensive safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure full cooperation with that U.N. body.
“Israel, with huge nuclear weapons activities, has not concluded” such an agreement or submitted its facilities to the IAEA’s safeguards, Soltanieh said.
Israel, which does not discuss whether it has atomic weapons, did not sign the nonproliferation treaty, which requires all signatories except the major powers to refrain from obtaining nuclear arms. India and Pakistan, which have developed nuclear weapons, also are not signatories.
Iran did sign the treaty and is under U.N. Security Council sanctions meant to pressure the Tehran government into allowing inspections that will ensure it isn’t developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists its atomic program is peaceful, with the sole goal of using reactors to generate electricity.
A U.S. envoy accused Iran of “provocative and destabilizing activities” and said its leaders were responsible for leading the country into the sanctions imposed by the Security Council.
“The path of defiance is also the path of isolation, of continuing and additional sanctions and of further stunted economic opportunities for a proud and sophisticated people already suffering from economic turmoil and mismanagement by its regime’s leaders,” said Christopher A. Ford, U.S. special representative for nuclear nonproliferation.
Ford said Iran joined North Korea and Syria in weakening the nonproliferation treaty.
“This treaty regime faces today the most serious tests it has ever faced: the ongoing nuclear weapons proliferation challenges presented by Iran, by North Korea and now by Syria,” Ford said.
Ford cited U.S. intelligence that North Korea was helping Syria in “secretly constructing a nuclear reactor that we believe was not intended for peaceful purposes.” Syria denied last week that it was working on an undeclared reactor, which purportedly was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike last September.
Soltanieh said nuclear-armed powers like the United States, Britain and France are practicing “nuclear apartheid” by denying or restricting peaceful atomic technology to countries like Iran.
“Access of developing countries to peaceful nuclear materials and technologies has been continuously denied to the extent that they have had no choice than to acquire their requirements for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including for medical and industrial applications, from open markets,” Soltanieh said.
This usually means the material is more expensive, poorer quality and less safe, he said.
Source: AP News
