News- Middle East: Iran’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna says many member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are under pressure and threats from the US not to support a draft resolution sponsored by Iran and several other countries at the nuclear watchdog’s General Conference.

“A considerable number of IAEA member states, in separate contacts with Iran and other sponsors of the draft resolution, have stated that they are under intense pressure and threats from the United States not to vote in favor of the submitted resolution,” Reza Najafi said Thursday.

He made the remarks in Geneva where the 69th IAEA General Conference is being held from September 15 to 19. 

The draft, submitted by Iran and five other nations to ongoing conference, calls for a ban on any attack or threat against nuclear sites under the IAEA Safeguards.  

“According to the representatives of these countries, the United States has approached each country separately and threatened them to cast a negative vote or abstain from voting on Iran’s resolution,” Najafi said.

"A number of these countries have declared that an ‘abstention’ from this resolution does not reflect their true position, and therefore they have strongly requested Iran, in consultation with the other co-sponsors of the resolution, to defer action on the resolution to next year’s conference."

Najafi stressed that Iran and the other sponsors of the resolution do not want to put the member states of the conference in a position where they must make an unreal decision, adding that the decision on how to proceed with this process is currently under discussion among the sponsors of the resolution.

The resolution follows the US-Israeli aggression against Iran in June, with Tehran warning that the attacks on its safeguarded nuclear facilities have endangered personnel, nuclear material security, the environment, and the credibility of the non-proliferation regime.

In remarks on Tuesday, Najafi said that the US has no valid argument against the resolution, which is rooted in longstanding international norms, including UN Security Council Resolution 487, which condemned Israel’s 1981 strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor. 

Source: Press TV