IAEA passes resolution rebuking Iran over nuclear program

The 35-nation board of the UN nuclear watchdog passed a resolution on Thursday rebuking Iran for defying demands to curb uranium enrichment and failing to clarify mounting concerns about its suspected research into atomic bombs.

Two days after Israel ramped up threats to attack its arch-enemy Iran, the board overwhelmingly adopted the measure voicing "serious concern" about Tehran's nuclear advances but also making clear its desire for a peaceful resolution of the row.

Only Cuba voted against the resolution. Three countries, including Egypt, abstained, according to diplomats who took part in the closed-door meeting at International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna.

The resolution faults Iran for disregarding UN resolutions calling on it to suspend uranium enrichment - a conduit to producing fuel for nuclear power stations or bombs - and open up to investigations of signs that it wants nuclear arms know-how.

Six world powers had tabled a resolution text on Wednesday, aiming to raise pressure on Iran to relent, a day after Israel signaled it was almost out of patience with the use of diplomacy and sanctions to try to rein in the Islamic Republic.

World powers are keen for a diplomatic breakthrough that would avert another, potentially devastating Middle East war.

South Africa earlier on Thursday threw the meeting into confusion by putting forward an amendment which some Western diplomats said might have weakened the language towards Iran.

But a compromise was hammered out during a three-hour adjournment of the meeting, the diplomats said, satisfying the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain and Germany.

South Africa's proposal was a nod to some in the Non-Aligned Movement of mainly developing nations (NAM) who do not regard Iran's nuclear program necessarily as a bomb risk.

The amendment concerned a section of the text demanding that Iran immediately implement a yet-to-be agreed framework accord with the IAEA on how the agency should conduct its investigation into suspected nuclear explosives research in the Islamic state

The compromise changed the original text but not as far as the South African proposal, easing Western fears that it could lower the heat on Tehran to cooperate with IAEA sleuths.

Haaretz