AFP – Diplomats tried to rescue a nuclear conference on Tuesday following Iranian objections to any focus on compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Failure to overcome the procedural hitch could cut short the two-week meeting in Vienna which is the first of a series of preparatory conferences ahead of a general review of the NPT in 2010 designed to find ways to improve the treaty.
Diplomats said they feared the Vienna meeting could descend into procedural wrangling as happened at the last review conference in New York in May 2005, at a time of nuclear crises in both Iran and North Korea.
At issue is Iran’s objection to the conference’s agenda which states there will be discussion on "reaffirming the need for full compliance with the treaty."
On Monday Iranian ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh surprised the opening session when he insisted that the item could "create disputes by creating too much focus on one country. We don’t want a direction given."
In March 2006, the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported Iran to the UN Security Council for failing to comply with its NPT safeguards agreement by hiding its nuclear activities.
The IAEA verifies whether states without nuclear weapons have peaceful atomic programs or are diverting nuclear material for military purposes.
The Security Council has over the past year twice levied sanctions on Iran for defying its calls to suspend uranium enrichment and for failing to comply with an IAEA investigation into Iran’s nuclear prorgram.
Diplomats said Iran was isolated at the Vienna meeting, with even its main ally Russia working towards a consensus on an agenda, the preferred way of operating at such conferences.
There was some confusion about whether Iran wanted to substitute the agenda prepared by the meeting’s chairman Yukiya Amano for one from 2005 or a meeting in 2002.
The general feeling, said one diplomat, was that whatever the technicalities, it was normal to discuss compliance, since this is a central tenet of the NPT.
"Iran can not be allowed to hold the conference hostage," the diplomat said.
The NPT, which went into effect at the height of the Cold War in 1970 to control the spread of nuclear weapons and was extended indefinitely in 1995, is reviewed every five years.
Western powers say they fear Iran is developing a nuclear arsenal, but Tehran denies this and says its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity.
A diplomat said it was "revelatory" that Iran wanted to block a full debate on compliance.
One diplomat said that Soltanieh felt that "singling out compliance had a particular motivation" and was directed against Iran.
The diplomat said Arab nations, which normally back Iran at NPT discussions, were unhappy because there was a reference they liked to resolutions on the Middle East in the agenda.
An Arab diplomat said Iran was trying, in the wake of UN sanctions, to send the signal that "if you are going to bash us, then we are going to make it difficult for you too."
The diplomat said a "face-saving formula" was needed to save the conference.
