LONDON Ñ Iran has been saved from sanctions by the United Nations.
The International Atomic Energy Agency failed to report Iran to the UN
Security Council regarding violations of Teheran's nuclear program. Such a
move could have led to Security Council sanctions on the Islamic republic.
Instead, the IAEA governing board concluded that Iran has concealed its
uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing program since 1985, Middle East Newsline reported. The board,
in a compromise drafted by the European Union, said it strongly deplored the
Iranian cover-up, but did not recommend any penalties.
"The board is sending a very serious and ominous message that failures
in the future will not be tolerated and that the board
will use all options available to it to deal with these failures," IAEA
director-general Mohammed El Baradei told a news conference in Vienna on
Wednesday.
The United States accepted the IAEA conclusion despite Washington's
dismay over the agency's assertion that Iran was not found to have been
pursuing a nuclear program. The IAEA said in a report that inspectors found
no evidence that Iran had tried to assemble nuclear weapons during its
concealment of the uranium enrichment program.
"We feel that this is a strong resolution," White House spokeswoman
Claire Buchan said.
