Iran Votes To Revise IAEA Ties

Here's the story from the AP:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's parliament voted Wednesday to urge the government to "revise" ties with the U.N. nuclear agency but stopped short of recommending a severing of relations.

The vote came four days after the U.N. Security Council decided to impose limited sanctions on Iran for its refusal to cease enrichment of uranium, a process that yields material for either nuclear reactors or bombs.

Members of Iran's ruling hierarchy have repeatedly urged the government to cut ties with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency if the Security Council imposes sanctions.

The bill said that the government was "obliged to accelerate the country's peaceful nuclear program and revise in its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency based on national interests."

The session was broadcast on state radio, says the AP, and some legislators pushed for a bill that would demand Iran took an even more agressive line while others argued that negotiation was the correct path and that the bill should be thrown out. The bill was passed by 161 votes out of 203.

For the bill to become law, it must now be approved by the Guardian Council, which the AP rightly describes as "a constitutional watchdog controlled by hard-line clerics." Even so, the process described, while not perfect democracy, is hardly a dictatorship as the American right would prefer to have it.

I understand Iranian sentiments on this. They've been railroaded and shafted non-stop by the Bush administration, working (often behind the scenes) tirelessly to create a narrative which makes the Iranians out to be the bad guys on this issue when so far they've done what the NPT said they could do - and no-one has any evidence that they've gone further than that. Still, I'm in agreement that the bill won't help reduce tensions and that negotiation would be a better course, even if it is in the face of a U.S. administration determined to fix the facts around the policy.