The United States said today Iran was clearly breaching its UN nuclear non-proliferation obligations.
Washington is winning more allies at the UN's nuclear watchdog to back a US demand that Tehran come clean about its nuclear programme, which some believe is a front to build an atomic bomb, diplomats claimed today.
The United States, along with Canada and Britain, is pressing the UN agency's board of governors to demand at this week's closed-door meeting that Iran enable UN inspectors to get to the bottom of its nuclear programme.
Washington, - which labelled Iran part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and pre-war Iraq - found itself isolated when it tried to push the board to report Iran to the UN Security Council for what it says is a clear breach of Iran's nuclear non-proliferation obligations.
But when US officials dropped their Security Council plans, diplomats said most of the 35-nation Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) became ready to support a new resolution demanding Iran's "urgent and essential co-operation" with the IAEA.
The resolution will also call on Iran to quickly sign and implement a protocol permitting more intrusive, snap inspections, and to answer the IAEA's many outstanding questions about its uranium-enrichment programme.