[26/November/2009]

VIENNA, Nov. 25 (Saba) -- World powers have drafted a resolution to be voted on by the UN atomic watchdog tomorrow calling on Iran to come clean with its uranium enrichment activities, diplomats said on Wednesday, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

A Western diplomat said that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany have drawn up a draft resolution to put to the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency at a two-day meeting starting Thursday.

But it was not yet certain whether the text would win the support of the majority of board members in negotiations ahead of the meeting, so the so-called P5+1 may finally decide to issue it merely as a statement rather than put it to the vote, another diplomat said.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of the matter.
The IAEA has not adopted a resolution on Iran since February 2006.

But Iran's shock revelation in September that it has been building a second enrichment plant, in defiance of UN sanctions to halt uranium enrichment altogether, has enraged even Russia and China, which have previously been reluctant to join western countries' call for tougher action against Iran.

The P5+1 met in Brussels last week where there was a high level of agreement on the seriousness of the latest revelation, the diplomats said.

Iran revealed to the IAEA in September that it had built a second uranium enrichment plant inside a mountain near Qom, triggering new outrage in the West over the nuclear drive, even though Iran denies it is trying to build a bomb.

Saba