New York (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Tehran has prevented inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from visiting its underground uranium enriching facility at Natanz. The decision comes on the eve of a United Nations Security Council meeting on Iran’s nuclear programme which might see Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad participate, this according to diplomatic sources in Vienna, home to the IAEA.
This decision appears to be an attempt by Iran to affect the atmosphere in which the Security Council will examine a proposed resolution by the 5+1 group, i.e. the five permanent Security Council members (United States, Russia, China, France and Great Britain) plus Germany.
The New York Times reports that Russia has informed Iran that it will withhold nuclear fuel for Iran's nearly completed Bushehr power plant unless Iran suspends its uranium enrichment as demanded by the UN Security Council.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad will likely defend his country’s nuclear programme in an address to the council on the day of the vote. He is expected to stress that Iran's nuclear programme is for generating electricity only.
Yesterday the United States in fact announced that it issued a visa to the Iranian leader to visit the UN headquarters in New York.
“We have host country obligations and we are going to live up those host country obligations,” US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
“It would be an important moment for President Ahmadinejad in his address to the Security Council to take the opportunity to say: “We are going to negotiate; we do not seek confrontation; we seek dialogue.”
For his part, Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said that Iran might have some new proposals to make.
After saying that the “president of Iran plans to speak at a possible meeting of the Security Council on Iran’s nuclear program to defend the right of the Iranian nation to use peaceful nuclear technology,” he added that the “president devises special innovations for every situation and employs them when necessary.”
The delegation is expected to include an unexpectedly high number of members, almost 100 personnel, arriving on a special Iranian plane.
Even if the president’s trip to New York might seem to legitimise the UN Security Council, in contrast to the government’s previous position, Elham stated that an “illegal act will never become legal.”
As for the Russia’s ultimatum, the News York Times said that Igor Ivanov, secretary of the Russian National Security Council, delivered it in Moscow last week to Ali Hosseini Tash, Iran's deputy chief nuclear negotiator.