Russian Diplomat Warns IAEA Anti-Iran Resolution Risks Escalation

GENEVA, September 10. /TASS/. Another anti-Iranian resolution adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors is fraught with another spiral of escalation, Russian Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov warned.

"The latest resolution is biased and confrontational in nature, carries the risk of triggering a new round of escalation, and certainly will not lead to resolving the problems its authors claim to be seeking to address," he said at a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors.

According to the diplomat, the statements by the authors of the draft resolution about their commitment to diplomacy are "nothing more than a smokescreen." Ulyanov stressed that using the IAEA "as a tool to settle scores with one’s opponents is unacceptable." He also stated that the United States and the E3 nations (the United Kingdom, Germany, and France) are systematically turning the IAEA Board of Governors into a "conveyor belt of provocative anti-Iranian attacks," churning out new resolutions at virtually every session of the Board.

Earlier, the IAEA Board of Governors passed a resolution claiming that Tehran has violated its nuclear non-proliferation obligations, which is to be brought before the UN Security Council and the General Assembly. The resolution was supported by 23 countries, with three voting against and eight abstaining.

The latest session of the IAEA Board of Governors opened in Vienna on September 7. Its participants are scheduled to review issues related to the Iranian nuclear program and the implementation of IAEA safeguards in Iran. The session will conclude on September 11.