De New York Times bericht: 'Nonaligned Nations Prepare to Back Iran.
Vienna, Austria - Western countries at a 35-nation U.N. meeting pushed Tuesday for consensus on the need for Iran to freeze uranium enrichment, but diplomats said that most nonaligned countries were preparing to endorse Tehran's right to continue the work.
The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were divulging confidential information, said the 16 International Atomic Energy Agency board members from the Nonaligned Movement were likely to issue a joint statement at odds with Western efforts on enrichment.
The language would be similar to a statement issued last month by foreign ministers of nonaligned nations in Malaysia, the diplomats told The Associated Press.
That declaration "reaffirmed the basic and inalienable right" of all countries to develop, produce and use atomic energy "for peaceful purposes, without any discrimination and in conformity with their respective legal obligations."
Iran says it has a right to enrich uranium for purposes of generating electricity under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The United States and its allies assert the claim is a cover for attempts to develop a nuclear weapons program.
When asked Monday if Iran would suspend enrichment for the sake of negotiations, Iranian spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham repeated the government line that enrichment is Iran's "obvious right."
With the group statement decidedly favoring Iran, the United States and its allies were focusing on key nations with clout among nonaligned countries - such as Brazil, India and Argentina - that have sided with them in the past. They are urging them to put pressure on Iran in individual statements to accept an offer for talks on its nuclear program, said the diplomats.' Lees verder:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Of:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061306O.shtml
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