Vienna - Six world powers have drafted a resolution to censure Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over a new nuclear facility and to involve the UN Security Council, several diplomats said Tuesday. The IAEA's governing board is set to start a meeting on Thursday in which the Qom enrichment facility will be discussed, a site that Tehran revealed to the Vienna-based agency only several years after starting construction.
Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States drafted the resolution that "notes with serious concern" that Iran is constructing this facility, one diplomat said.
The resolution that needs the support of at least half of the 35 countries on the board also tasks IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei on transmitting the document to the UN Security Council.
Another diplomat said that the resolution would be a way of starting to build pressure on the Islamic Republic before the Security Council would take up the issue again early next year and mull further sanctions if Iran does not start cooperating.
"It's a political signal to say: We waited for a long time, but our patience has run out," he said. The last time the board issued a resolution on Iran was in 2006.
