Arab States Share International Concerns About Nuclear Iran

17 December 2008

(International sanctions are working, says Rice at United Nations)

By David McKeeby
Staff Writer

Washington — Iran’s neighbors share the international community’s growing concerns about the country’s controversial nuclear ambitions, says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who added that Tehran’s refusal to join negotiations continues to deepen Iran’s isolation.

“The Iranians are paying real costs for their behavior. And it hasn’t yet convinced them that they ought to change their course, but there are plenty of voices being heard inside that government that are talking about the costs and about whether or not they’ve made a mistake,” Rice said at the United Nations in New York December 16.

She was speaking before consultations with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, who along with Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq are collectively known as the “GCC+3.”

Rice explained that the meeting was being held in response to concerns from Arab diplomats who met in November 2008 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and wanted an update on efforts to address Iran’s nuclear challenge to the international community.

“These are countries that have very deep interests in how this issue gets resolved,” Rice said of the GCC+3 members, who have requested regular briefings on progress toward convincing Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program, which many observers — including the United States — suspect may be part of a covert drive to build nuclear weapons.

Rice was joined by British Foreign Minister David Miliband. The United States and Great Britain, along with representatives from U.N. Security Council permanent members France, Russia and China, have joined with Germany to form the “P5+1,” a diplomatic grouping that has worked to convince Iran to suspend enrichment and come to the negotiating table.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, the P5+1’s lead negotiator, was also present for the briefing. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who joined Rice at the United Nations for meetings on piracy and Middle East peace, did not attend the event, while GCC members Oman and Qatar did not send envoys to New York for the event.

“Iran's nuclear weapons program is increasingly recognized as a threat to the whole region of the Middle East,” Miliband told reporters, adding that the program could “kick-start another nuclear race in the region.”

Iranian officials claim that their nuclear program is aimed at developing civil nuclear power, but have refused to explain mounting evidence about possible undeclared nuclear materials and their alleged research into nuclear weapons design. Iran suspended the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from conducting snap inspections of Iranian nuclear sites in 2006. Since then, the U.N. Security Council has unanimously imposed three rounds of sanctions on government agencies, Iranian officials, banks and other institutions linked to the program.

“Banks won’t deal with them,” Rice said. “And what I’m pleased about is that we’ve been able to put that structure in place and to impose those costs because they’re about to have an election. We’ll see what happens in their election. But, sooner or later, they’re going to have to deal with the fact, particularly with declining oil prices, that these costs are going to become pretty acute.”

Delivering the IAEA’s annual report to the U.N. General Assembly October 28, Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei rejected Iranian arguments that the nuclear monitoring agency is exceeding its mandate by demanding answers to these questions, which he said would be “good for Iran, good for the Middle East region and good for the world.”

The Iranian government’s defiance of the United Nations stands in stark contrast to the actions of the GCC, whose members came together in 2006 to formulate a joint civil nuclear technology program that is benefiting its citizens while observing international nonproliferation standards to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

The United States concluded nuclear cooperation agreements with both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in 2008, paving the way for Gulf nations to purchase nuclear fuel to power future nuclear power stations on international markets rather than building the massive infrastructure needed to enrich uranium or manufacture plutonium — processes that, as in the case of Iran, could result in the diversion of materials into nuclear arms production. (See “United States Supports Saudi Arabian Civil Nuclear Program.”)

Several nations, including the United States, produce nuclear fuel that is suitable for use in civil nuclear power plants but cannot be further modified for use in weapons, according to the State Department.

As a further demonstration of their commitment to the safe pursuit of civil nuclear power, every GCC+3 member, except Egypt, has joined the Proliferation Security Initiative, an 88-nation partnership established by the United States in 2003 to track and freeze shipments of banned weapons worldwide. Many have also joined the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, a 75-nation partnership launched in 2006 by President Bush and then-Russian President Vladimir Putin to strengthen controls and enhance international cooperation in the name of nuclear safety.