14 September 2005 Blog Home : September 2005 : Permalink
BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.N. atomic watchdog fears referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council now for possible sanctions would split its members and would rather set a new deadline for Iran to halt sensitive work, diplomats said.
The 35-nation governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) begins on Monday. The main issue will be an EU-U.S. plan to refer Iran to the Security Council, which could lead to economic sanctions over fears Iran seeks nuclear arms.
"Everything points in the direction of a need for more time. So it would be in everbody's favor to give it some three or four weeks," a senior diplomat close to the Vienna-based atomic watchdog told Reuters on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
What precisely is the point of "more time" or a further deadline? It is obvious to all observers that Iran has no intention of complying so the only effect of more time is to, as the article explains, make it harder for the IAEA to report Iran to the security council because the next IAEA board "will have more NAM (non-aligned movement) states on it"