Meeting at the Church of the Good Shepherd, NYC - March 15, 2006

Meeting at the Church of the Good Shepherd, NYC - March 15, 2006

1. The recent ‘reporting’ of Iran to the UN Security Council follows three years of political and economic pressure by the US on the EU-3, other Board members of the IAEA, and China and Russia in particular.

2. The resolution has no legal basis: it preempted the March 6th final report of the IAEA investigation and thus tried to influence and frame the final decision improperly.

3. It has no technical basis: it has no reference to the latest report of the inspectors whose summary states that Iran has continued to cooperate with the IAEA to provide requisite declarations and access to locations in a timely manner as if the Additional Protocol were in force. Instead it takes the opposite stance by stressing breaches of Iran’s obligations.

4. Its verdict that there is lack of confidence that Iran’s program is just for peaceful purposes in not legally tenable, but a merely political judgment.

5. It is hypocritical: item (e) of the resolution specifically states that Iran is a special case of verification. This clause has been added to assure other member states of the IAEA Board that they will not be next targeted.

6. IAEA is in breach of NPT by demanding that Iran should halt its enrichment related activities when there is no shred of evidence after hundreds of snap intrusive visits in two and half years that there is any weaponization program in Iran.

7. The IAEA resolution to report Iran to the UN Security Council is a key step for the US’s war drive against Iran in a replay of the invasion of Iraq for a regime change, this time in Iran, for the control of its oil resources and to replace one of only two defiant regimes in the Middle East with a client state. The massive escalation of threats and reports of planning for military intervention in Iran including by tactical nuclear weapons following the adoption of the IAEA resolution testifies to the real aims of the US.

8. Those member states who voted for the resolution have allowed the US to abuse an international body such as the IAEA for its political aims. Referral of Iran to the UN Security Council is thus a trap set by the US for Europe, China, Russia and other IAEA board member states.

9. The recent arrangement reached between the Bush administration and the Government of India demonstrates the very selective deference to the NPT paid by the U.S., as it clearly violates basic understandings and requirements of the Treaty, by encouraging and facilitating expansion of nuclear weaponry in India.

10. To prevent a new catastrophic war in the Middle East which can turn into a conflagration in the whole region, we call on the Security Council members, IAEA Board members to resolve Iran’s nuclear issues under the auspices of the IAEA itself.

– http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/