10 May 2007
In what has been seen as a major boost for South Africa's international credentials, Iran this week accepted a South African proposal that saved a global meeting on nuclear non-proliferation from collapse.
The two-week conference had been deadlocked since opening in Vienna almost two weeks ago as Iran objected to an agenda item calling for full compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, arguing that this would see Iranian nuclear activity targeted to the exclusion of other issues - such as the slowness of the major Western powers in phasing out their nuclear arsenals.
According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, on Tuesday declared Iran's acceptance of a South Africa solution to the impasse, after which the 130 treaty states at the meeting were able to adopt the agenda by consensus.
The South African amendment - a footnote explaining that "compliance" meant "with all provisions" of the treaty - successfully reassured Iran that the meeting would not just put pressure on Tehran over its nuclear fuel programme, but would also push countries with atomic bombs to do more to heed their treaty commitments to disarm.
According to news agency Reuters, Tehran "rejects as unfounded western suspicions that it is trying covertly to build atom bombs behind the facade of civilian uranium enrichment within treaty terms. But Tehran has not been fully co-operating with UN nuclear watchdog investigations begun after sensitive Iranian nuclear fuel research was exposed by Iranian exiles in 2002."
With Western countries accusing Iran of failing to comply with treaty safeguards against nuclear proliferation, the country has been hit by UN sanctions, prompting Iranian hardliners to call on the country to quit the treaty altogether.
In terms of the treaty, member countries without nuclear weapons may not acquire them, the original five nuclear powers are obliged to dismantle their arsenals in stages, and all members are entitled to harness nuclear energy for peaceful ends.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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