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Iran has continued to make further progress on its nuclear programs in defiance of UN security Council demands. Evidence of this progress has emerged even as a May 23 deadline looms for Tehran to comply with a March security Council resolution.
Iranian officials have continued to express a willingness to enter into negotiations with Germany and the permanent members of the security Council. Those officials have said, however, that they will not suspend Iran's gas centrifuge-based uranium-enrichment program despite repeated demands from the security Council to do so.
Resolution 1747, which was adopted in March in response to Iran's failure to comply with previous resolutions, imposed new restrictions on Tehran and expanded the scope of existing sanctions. (see ACT, April 2007.) The most recent resolution requires Iran to comply "without further delay" with Resolution 1737, which the council adopted in December. Those requirements include a demand that Iran suspend all activities related to its enrichment program, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but that could be used to produce highly enriched uranium for bombs. (see ACT, January/February 2007.)
The March resolution requested International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed El Baradei to submit a report within 60 days to the security Council and to the IAEA Board of Governors regarding Iran's compliance. The council could adopt additional sanctions if Iran fails to comply.
Department of State spokesperson Scan McCormack told reporters April 9 that "there is [the] potential for more resolutions of [a] similar type down the road" if Iran continues to be uncooperative.
Resolution 1747 was the council's third regarding Iran's nuclear program. The first was Resolution 1696, which the council adopted last July. That resolution followed a June 2006 offer of incentives from Germany and permanent security Council members China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, that was intended to induce Iran to end its enrichment program. (See ACT, September 2006.)
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National security Council and Tehran's lead nuclear negotiator, met April 25-26 with Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief.
The meeting ended without agreement, although Larijani said that "New ideas emerged during the negotiations," Iranian radio reported April 27. He described these ideas, however, as "undeveloped," adding that they "need more...