France, Germany and Britain are preparing a toughly-worded resolution criticising Iran for concealing sensitive nuclear technology for decades from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, diplomats said yesterday.
On November 20, the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors meets to discuss an IAEA report on Iran's nuclear programme, detailing 18 years of failures by Iran to inform the agency of all its atomic activities and facilities.
The United States, which says Iran's nuclear programme is a front to build The Bomb, wants the board to declare Iran in breach of its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which would require it to report Tehran to the UN Security Council for possible economic sanctions.
A Western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity that European, Latin American and most board members from the Non-Aligned Movement had "a more or less common opinion" against reporting Iran to the council.
"It would be extremely difficult, or simply impossible to reach a consensus on non-compliance (with the NPT)," the diplomat said, adding most board members favoured a "strongly worded resolution that sends a very strong message" to Iran.
Diplomats said France, Germany and Britain had indicated they were already working on such a draft resolution, though they said nothing had been circulated yet.
It was unclear whether the proposal would be enough to satisfy the US and its allies taking a similarly tough line on the Iran issue - Canada and Australia.
But a diplomat who follows the IAEA closely questioned the value of such a proposal: "How sharply-worded is a resolution that does not contain the word non-compliance?"
Tehran warned on Thursday the crisis surrounding Iran's nuclear programme could escalate if the IAEA finds it in breach of its NPT obligations and reports it to the Security Council.
"Things could very easily get out of control," Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, told Reuters, adding that "it could lead to unpredictable consequences".
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told reporters in Japan: "We are strongly determined on complete transparency. We have cooperated even more than the IAEA expected." Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out at US President George W. Bush at yesterday's prayers.
"Americans killed hundreds of innocent people in Afghanistan and they continue to attack and kill Iraqi civilians," Khamenei, Iran's most powerful figure, told thousands of worshippers.
Khamenei said Washington's occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq had fuelled anti-American sentiment throughout the region.
"They are suppressing the Iraqi people exactly like Saddam Hussein used to," said the black-turbaned senior cleric.
Pakistan, a nuclear weapons state that has refused to sign the NPT, denied a report in a British newspaper that said Iran had confirmed Pakistan had helped it with its nuclear programme.
A Pakistan foreign ministry statement called the report "totally baseless".
"These unsubstantiated reports occur periodically in some sections of the Western media and they reflect their long-standing anti-Muslim bias," the statement said.
Salehi also rejected the charge, but he did not rule out that "intermediaries" may have sold Iran uranium enrichment centrifuge parts originating from Pakistan.