The IAEA's board of governors holds a meeting on UN premises in Vienna. EPA
The IAEA's board of governors holds a meeting on UN premises in Vienna. EPA
The IAEA's board of governors holds a meeting on UN premises in Vienna. EPA
The IAEA's board of governors holds a meeting on UN premises in Vienna. EPA

Iran pressed for urgent answers on unexplained nuclear material


Tim Stickings
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Iran was told on Thursday to come clean about undeclared nuclear material to end a stand-off with a UN watchdog.

A resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board said it was "essential and urgent" for Iran to resolve the dispute.

The motion, backed by the US, Britain, France and Germany, passed with 26 votes in favour and two against, diplomats said.

It urges Iran to abide by its obligations under a non-proliferation agreement with the IAEA.

"Iran must now provide the necessary co-operation ― no more empty promises," said Laura Holgate, the US representative on the board.

The long-running impasse concerns uranium traces at three undeclared locations in Iran.

The IAEA has said it cannot be sure that Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful until it receives a satisfactory explanation.

The whereabouts of the uranium traces are unknown and they could still be in Iran, the EU delegation said in a statement to the board on Thursday.

"Iran has yet to take the necessary actions and provide technically credible explanations," it said at the closed-door meeting in Vienna.

A satellite image of the Arak heavy water reactor in Iran. AFP
A satellite image of the Arak heavy water reactor in Iran. AFP

Tehran has suggested it could not return to its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers until the IAEA investigation is out of the way.

But IAEA director general Rafael Grossi has continued to demand answers, and the US rejects any attempt to link the two matters.

Ms Holgate said the UN agency could take further action against Iran if it does not meet the board's demand.

"Iran continues to brazenly disregard the director general’s repeated requests ― for years now ― for Iran to provide the substantive co-operation necessary," she told the board.

"The power to resolve these issues is in Iran’s hands, and we once again urge Iran to do so. There are no shortcuts here: political or other."

Another US diplomat, special envoy for Iran Robert Malley, said this week that restoring the 2015 pact was not Washington's focus at present.

He said the US was more concerned with domestic repression in Iran and its alleged military support for Russia.

Russia, one of Iran's few allies on the IAEA board, cheered the fact that Thursday's resolution won slightly less support than another vote on Iran in June.

It came after the board was reconfigured in October, with several seats changing hands.

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
RESULTS

6.30pm Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Dirt) 1,200m

Winner Canvassed, Par Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)

7.05pm Meydan Cup – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (Turf) 2,810m

Winner Dubai Future, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor

7.40pm UAE 2000 Guineas – Group 3 (TB) $125,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner Mouheeb, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard

8.15pm Firebreak Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner Secret Ambition, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar

9.50pm Meydan Classic – Conditions (TB) $$50,000 (T) 1,400m

Winner Topper Bill, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar

9.25pm Dubai Sprint – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,200m

Winner Man Of Promise, William Buick, Charlie Appleby

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Temple numbers

Expected completion: 2022

Height: 24 meters

Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people

Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people

First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time

First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres  

Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres

Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor 

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Updated: November 17, 2022, 3:38 PM`