Western powers to present resolution on Iran in the UN Council
ALEANDER BALZAN
03.05.2006 @ 09:58 CET
The US, Britain and France are in the next weeks expected to present a resolution to the UN Security Council, obliging Iran to stop its nuclear activities.
The five states permanent members of the Security Council – the US, Russia, China, France, and the UK - plus Germany met in Paris to discuss Iran and its nuclear activities on Tuesday (2 May).
"The participants discussed the steps to come in the United Nations Security Council," said a French Foreign Ministry statement.
"The three European political directors presented the broad lines of a draft resolution aimed at giving mandatory force to the IAEA's [the UN nuclear watchdog] demands."
"In particular those which deal with the suspension of activities linked to the enrichment and reprocessing of uranium," continued the statement.
Although the draft resolution has not been made public, the New York Times reports that it will call on Iran to stop producing enriched uranium and to return to the negotiating table.
The resolution is likely to take weeks to negotiate as Russia and China are set to resist the idea of any possible sanctions against Tehran.
"The Security Council has no option but to proceed under Chapter 7," said US under secretary Nicholas Burns.
A resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter would make a March council statement asking Iran to suspend uranium enrichment work legally binding.
Iran topic at Merkel-Bush meeting
Iran is also expected to be the main topic of discussion between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President George W Bush when they meet in Washington on Wednesday (3 May).
Although Ms Merkel's position is similar to that of the US, France and Britain she might call for more flexibility on the issue.
She is expected to urge President Bush not to press too quickly for international sanctions against Iran.
The Iranian government would also like to see Germany taking up the role as a mediator in this nuclear dispute, German daily Die Welt reports.
"Due to good bilateral relations, Germany could act as front runner to bring the nuclear row out of the dead end", said Alaeddin Borudscherdi, leader of the Iranian parliament's foreign affairs committee after meeting the conservative chairman of the German foreign affairs committee, Ruprecht Polenz.
Before the meeting in Paris on Tuesday (2 May), Iran threatened to attack Israel in response to any 'evil' act by the United States.
"We have announced that wherever America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel," said Commander Mahammad-Ebrahim Dehqani according to media reports.
Last year Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejas threatened to wipe Israel "off the map".