SA, Malaysia and Cuba back Iran in standoff Peter Fabricius January 30 2006 at 07:33AM
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has made a surprise visit to South Africa where he appeared to win the guarded support of this country, Cuba and Malaysia to oppose Western plans to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council about its nuclear programme.
European powers are planning to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council this week because they suspect it is preparing to build nuclear weapons.
Iran insists it only wants to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as it is entitled to do under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The crisis came to a head two weeks ago when Iran broke seals on its facilities for enriching uranium, a process that can lead either to the construction of nuclear weapons or to production of nuclear fuel to power generators.
'Develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes'
Mottaki went to Hermanus, on Friday to lobby Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and her counterparts, Malaysia's Syed Hamid Albar, and Cuba's Felipe Perez Roque.
They had just held a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) troika to prepare for the September NAM summit in Cuba.
The troika comprises the current NAM chair, Malaysia, the previous chair South Africa and the next chair, Cuba.
Mottaki's visit was part of the intense efforts by both sides to lobby SA's support for the crucial vote on Iran at Thursday's meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.
South Africa is a member of the 35-nation board and wields considerable influence.
Criticism that the EU-3 is acting prematurely
Mottaki seemed to win partial support from the NAM troika, judging by a joint statement issued by the foreign ministers.
It "urged all parties concerned to exhaust all efforts through dialogue and negotiations", and also insisted that the issue of Iran's nuclear programme "should be resolved within the framework of the (International Atomic Energy) Agency".
This seemed to imply that the issue should not be taken up by the UN Security Council.
The NAM troika statement also stressed "the basic and inalienable right of all states party to the NPT to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes".
But the NAM ministers also pointedly reminded Mottaki of the "principled position of NAM concerning disarmament, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy".
They also welcomed Iran's intention to negotiate with France, Germany and Britain - the so-called "EU-3" European powers delegated to deal with the issue - and also with Russia, which has offered to enrich uranium in Russia for Iran to remove suspicion that Iran is enriching uranium to make weapons.
In an effort to deal with such resistance from some NAM countries and also Russia, the EU-3 are believed to have diluted the resolution they plan to put to the IAEA board on Thursday.
An European Union diplomat said that the resolution would only call for the IAEA to "inform" the United Nations Security Council about Iran and leave a referral motion until the March IAEA meeting.
This move is also intended to deal with criticism from South Africa and other countries that the EU-3 is acting prematurely because the IAEA board is only due to receive the IAEA's own report on Iran's nuclear activities at the March meeting.
Veto-wielding permanent Security Council members Russia and China may undermine the US and European attempt to refer Iran to the council.
Mottaki said on his return to Iran at the weekend that his country would cease co-operation with UN nuclear inspectors if the IAEA referred Iran to the UN Security Council.
"Any possible action by the board of governors (of the IAEA) in informing the UN security council about Iran's nuclear project in their February meeting, as I said before, will trigger the government to cut all its voluntary measures as per the law," Mottaki told a news conference.
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