Iranians Testing the U.N.
Ire Rises at a Russian Démarche

Benny Avni
April 10, 2007
New York Sun
Original Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/52107

UNITED NATIONS — Iran is testing the limits of the U.N. Security Council's resolve, boasting of a major advance in its nuclear program and announcing that one of its officials visited Moscow after the council specifically banned him from traveling abroad.
Western diplomats were livid, sources told The New York Sun, after Russia said a top Revolutionary Guard general, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, was in Moscow between April 4 and 7. According to a recent council resolution, the general's trips outside Iran are supposed to be restricted by U.N. member states.
The reported visit to the Russian capital — confirmed alongside Iran's announcement that it is operating 3,000 centrifuges — comes two weeks after the Security Council enacted slightly tightened punitive measures to halt Tehran's nuclear progress, and seems to suggest that one of the council's key members helped render its sanctions regime meaningless.
Last month, Iran's allies at the council inserted several provisions into U.N. resolution 1747, leading some in Tehran to believe the soft sanctions pose no real threat to the regime.
Despite resolution 1747, which imposed a travel ban on some members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, including me, I traveled to Russia and no restriction was applied, General Zolqadr said after his return from Moscow, according to the Iranian state TV Web site.
Yesterday, in defiance of the Security Council's directive to halt all uranium enrichment, President Ahmadinejad said, I declare that as of today, our dear country has joined the nuclear club of nations and can produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale.
The country's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, also hinted that Tehran could withdraw from the international pact governing the spread of atomic weapons, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. While Iran is not interested in leaving the NPT right now, he said, there is a possibility of making another decision under the pressure of the parliament.
According to a source at the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is impossible to verify whether Iran has begun operating 3,000 centrifuges at its Natanz plant. The news yesterday took the IAEA by surprise, the source, who requested anonymity, said.
In his latest report, released last month, the director-general of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, said that if 500 or more centrifuges are being enriched at Natanz, the IAEA must install permanent cameras to monitor activities there. To date, the agency has relied strictly on sporadic visits by its inspectors.
The IAEA source said that even if Iran's attempt to reach the 3,000-centrifuge target has failed, it provided a way for Iranian scientists to learn from their mistakes and as such represents an important step forward for the country's nuclear program.
Either way, Mr. Ahmadinejad's announcement is in clear violation of several Security Council resolutions, both of which threaten heightened sanctions unless Iran immediately suspends all uranium enrichment.
It is very important for any member country to fully comply with the Security Council resolution. I urge the Iranian government to do so, Secretary-General Ban told reporters yesterday.
The White House believes that Iran continues to defy the international community and further isolate itself, a spokesman for the National Security Council, Gordon Johndroe, said.
According to U.N. resolution 1747, countries must apply vigilance and restraint before allowing 15 Iranian officials entry, among them General Zolqadr, a deputy interior minister for security affairs in Iran.
The resolution is clear, a spokesman for the American mission to the United Nations, Richard Grenell, told the Sun. Countries must use vigilance and restraint to ban the travel of certain individuals.
The resolution makes an exception in certain cases, when compelling reasons allow for travel. Mr. Grenell said, however, that council members understood those exceptions to include travel only to U.N. conferences or for religious purposes; neither of those applied in General Zolqadr's case.
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mikhail Kamynin, said yesterday that Russia informed the Security Council's sanctions committee well in advance of its intention to approve General Zolqadr's visit. Western diplomats confirmed Mr. Kamynin's account but said no consultations on the proposed visit took place.
The latest contact does not violate U.N. Security Council resolution 1747 on Iran, Mr. Kamynin said.