Greenpeace statement on IAEA Board of Governors meeting on Iran

The debate on Iran continues to highlight the contradiction at the heart of the nuclear non-proliferation problem. In the last week Director General ElBaradei has supported U.S cooperation with India's nuclear programme despite India's illegal possession of nuclear weapons, whilst the IAEA Board has decided to report Iran to the UN Security Council even though Iran is operating legally inside the same framework. This nuclear hypocrisy clearly demonstrates the fault line in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that will continue to plague the international community.

Today the IAEA Board sent the Iran file to the Security Council, when it should have also gone to the General Assembly as other cases have1, and as is required by the IAEA Statute2. This is a global problem that requires global solutions, and that's why the General Assembly - not the Security Council - should be involved. The Security Council has not demonstrated its competence in the field of arms control and disarmament in the past and is unlikely to do so now. Security Council members have a track record in promoting arms races rather than producing the plan to stop wasting resources on arms, as they are mandated to do under article 26 of the UN Charter.

The only long-term resolution to the global proliferation crisis is to eradicate the temptation of nuclear technology altogether. Genuine negotiations are desperately needed on a nuclear-free Middle East. Only a Middle East free of all nuclear technology can be a Middle East free of nuclear proliferation.