Bolton Says Iran Security Council Referral Would Alter Dynamic

USInfo.State.gov:

A referral of Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the U.N. Security Council would change the current political dynamic by highlighting the full scope of international resistance to Iran’s nuclear development program, says the top U.S. representative to the United Nations.

Placing the issue under the spotlight of the Security Council, said Ambassador John Bolton, will “help dramatize the extent of world opposition to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and demonstrate to them that the course they are pursuing is not acceptable.”

At a January 25 news briefing, Bolton said Iran was a “particularly acute case” in the fight to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists as Iran long has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism for supporting terrorist groups with personnel, supplies and funds. READ MORE

“One obviously has to worry that a nuclear-capable Iran would have the ability to deliver nuclear weapons, not only through ballistic missiles, but also by giving these weapons to terrorist groups,” he said.

The United States continues to seek a diplomatic solution to the problem, Bolton said, and its immediate goal is getting the IAEA to vote at its February 2 meeting to report Iran’s violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to the U.N. Security Council. Any subsequent actions the Security Council would take after that referral would depend on Iran’s response, he said.

“The hope,” he added, “would be that Iran would come to its senses and give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons simply because it understands fully that the international community is completely united in its opposition to Iran acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.”

The issue is a test, he said, of the Security Council’s ability to play an effective role in preventing proliferation and participating in the War on Terror.

U.N. REFORM ISSUES

Calling it questionable that an agreement on replacing the discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission with a new Human Rights Council could be reached before the commission’s next scheduled meeting in March, Bolton cautioned that no one should think the United States would trade away the robust reforms it seeks in order to meet that deadline.

The United States will not be satisfied with cosmetic changes, he said. “We want a butterfly; we don’t intend to put lipstick on a caterpillar and call it a success.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will complete his term this December and Bolton said the United States hopes his replacement will be chosen sometime mid-year to allow the new secretary-general time to prepare for the transition.

The United States, he said, does not recognize the principle of geographic rotation in selection of the secretary-general and believes the objective should be to find the best-qualified individual, regardless of the candidate’s home region.

Bolton said an internal report released to U.N. members January 25 revealed “the depth and breadth of corruption and mismanagement in procurement and U.N. peacekeeping activities.” (See related article.)

“This is absolutely compelling evidence of the need for sweeping reform,” he said, noting that “every dollar of waste, fraud and abuse [in peacekeeping budgets] contains 27 American cents.”