Next stop on the Iranian nuke journey: the United Nations Security Council.
An emergency meeting over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme is to be held by the United Nations’ atomic weapons watchdog at the request of Britain, France and Germany, it was revealed yesterday.
The so-called EU3 and the United States are expected to push at the session of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board to have Tehran referred to the UN Security Council after it resumed research that could be used for generating electricity or making atomic bombs.
The US and EU said yesterday they saw no point in holding further negotiations with Iran on its nuclear programmes and it was time for the Security Council to tackle the issue.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said there was “not much to talk about” and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, agreed. Ms Rice said the international community was united in mistrusting the Islamic republic and its present leadership with nuclear technology.
‘Bout freakin’ time. It was obvious from the beginning that the Euro-led negotiations were a waste of valuable time, time Iran has used to its advantage. A week ago, I blogged the following:
It is time, actually well past time, to admit that the Euro diplomacy path was a gambit doomed to fail. The U.S. was forced to allow it, as the Bush administration had been painted into a corner with all the false and politically-driven accusations of unilateral action and rush to war surrounding the Iraqi theater. From the beginning, there was a key fault with the negotiations — one side didn’t actually want them to succeed.
So now we find the matter heading toward the UNSC. Make no mistake, however — that will not be the last stop on this hellish ride. It’s just another point on a journey that will likely end in flame. The true story ultimately lies in just who will decide the locations of said flame.