Iran's UN Referral Delayed on Demand for `Nuclear-Free' Mideast 

Jonathan Tirone
February 3, 2006
Bloomberg
Original Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aJmAeiynGLTM&refer=us

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations nuclear watchdog delayed voting on a resolution to send Iran to the UN Security Council over its atomic program because some countries want the measure to declare the Middle East a nuclear weapons-free zone. 
The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board of governors will reconvene in Vienna at 10 a.m. local time tomorrow, the IAEA said. 
The draft resolution, written by European diplomats and backed by the U.S., says the IAEA ``doesn't have confidence that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.'' A referral to the Security Council may result in economic sanctions. IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei said the measure has enough votes to pass. 
The demand for wording in the resolution that the Middle East be free of nuclear arms came from some developing countries, said diplomats and IAEA officials who requested anonymity because negotiations are ongoing. Members of the 16- nation Non-Aligned Movement are holding out support for the resolution until a reference to the zone is included. 
The Non-Aligned Movement ``reiterates its support for the establishment in the Middle East of a zone free of all nuclear weapons,'' Malaysia's ambassador to the IAEA, Rajmah Hussain, said in a statement yesterday. 
A referral will put an end to a Russian proposal to enrich Iranian uranium on Russian soil, Iranian diplomat Javad Vaidi said at a news conference today. Adopting the resolution would ``kill the Russian proposal,'' Vaidi told reporters in Vienna. 
The U.S. and the European Union accuse Iran of using a civilian nuclear program to conceal weapons-production plans. Iran's government says the program is for electricity generation.