The International Atomic Energy Agency, or I.A.E.A., reported to the United Nations Security Council that Iran has failed to comply with its demand to cease enriching uranium.
In his report, I-A-E-A Director General Mohammad ElBaradei also raised several outstanding questions about Iran's nuclear declarations, including increased concerns about experiments in separating plutonium, and about the role of the military in Iran's nuclear program. Mr. ElBaradei's report has bolstered suspicions that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that the time has come for the U-N Security Council to follow through on the "presidential statement" it issued in March:
"We can't just go back and have another presidential statement, so it's likely that we will try to move to a Chapter Seven resolution, which is a resolution in the U-N that compels behavior from a member-state."
Ms. Rice says Iran should not be permitted to defy the U-N:
"The international community's credibility is at stake here, and we have a choice too: we can either mean what we say when we say that Iran must comply or we can continue to allow Iran to defy."
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says there is "the potential of a whole array of actions, either in the U-N or by individual states, to apply other diplomatic pressures" on Iran. "The point here," says Mr. McCormack, "is not to try to punish the Iranian people, but it is to try to compel a change in behavior [in] the Iranian regime."
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government.
