US Senate condemns Iran nuclear
program
Yahoo News/AFP
January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Senate voted unanimously to condemn Iran's nuclear
program and to support referring Iran to the UN Security Council for allegedly
violating nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
The resolution, adopted without debate, condemned "the many failures of the
government of Iran to comply faithfully with its nuclear nonproliferation
obligations" and its commitments to suspend uranium enrichment and
reprocessing.
The Senate also urged the International Atomic Energy Agency, which meets
February 2, "to order that Irans noncompliance with its safeguards obligations
be reported to the United Nations Security Council."
The senators further called on UN Security Council members, particularly
Russia and China, to quickly "consider any report of Irans noncompliance in
fulfillment of the mandate of the Security Council to respond to and deal with
situations bearing on the maintenance of international peace and security."
Russia and China have expressed reservations about having the Security
Concil take action on Iran, appearing hesitant to have the council become
locked into any path that could force sanctions to be applied on Tehran.
The White House on Friday accused Iran of playing "games" with the
international community by not accepting a Russian compromise aimed at allaying
US concerns that Tehran seeks nuclear weapons.
Asked about Iran's tepid response to the proposal, White House spokesman
Scott McClellan said: "They appear to be playing more games with the
international community."
A top Iranian nuclear negotiator said Friday that a Russian proposal to
carry out sensitive nuclear fuel work outside Iran is "not sufficient."
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