A Daily Briefing on Iran: Iran's Choice

Amb. Jackie W. Sanders writing for The Wall Street Journal reviews Iran's lack of compliance with it's promises to the international community and offers advice on how to encourage Iran to back down from its nuclear weapons program.

First, the IAEA should not allow Iran a moment's rest until all outstanding questions about Iran's activities are answered. Iran's safeguards violations should be reported to the Security Council as required by the IAEA Statute. If Iran breaks its suspension pledge, the IAEA Board must also report this as a threat to international peace and security. There is no need to remove the issue of Iran from the IAEA, and we do not wish to do so. But there is every reason to involve the Security Council, which has the international legal and political authority that will be necessary to address this situation. Only the Council has the power to require Iran to take all necessary measures to restore international confidence, and to reinforce the IAEA's authority to ensure that we all get the necessary assurances of its peaceful intentions.

Quite apart from how the IAEA chooses to handle the Iran situation, the U.S. reserves all of its options with respect to Security Council consideration of the Iranian nuclear weapons program. After all, under the U.N. Charter, any member may bring to the Council's attention any situation that might endanger international peace and security.

If we take controlling the proliferation of nuclear weapons seriously, we must all work to ensure that non-compliance becomes more costly than compliance. The EU-3 and other Board members must make clear to Iran that it faces a stark choice. ...

The choice is Iran's, but all nations are obliged to persuade Iran to make the right choice by escalating these issues in their own relations with it. ...

Amb. Sanders is the President's Special Envoy for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and led the U.S. delegations to the September and November 2004 IAEA Board of Governor meetings in Vienna.