Iran on Tuesday accepted a compromise for the agenda of global talks on how to shore-up the troubled nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, averting a collapse of the meeting after a week of deadlock.
Iran, accused by the West of seeking to build a nuclear bomb, had blocked consensus on the agenda text over a phrase it feared would heap blame on it during debate for the NPT's ills. Tehran dropped its objection after a footnote was added spelling out that other challenges to the treaty would be addressed.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for civilian use only. But the Islamic Republic has come under U.N. sanctions for refusing to suspend nuclear enrichment after allegations it dodged a U.N. nuclear watchdog investigation into its programme.
Iran's acceptance of the compromise allowed the two-week gathering of 130 nations, due to run until Friday, to launch a debate on setting priorities for follow-up meetings leading to the next decision-making NPT Review Conference in 2010.
The NPT binds members without nuclear weapons not to acquire them, guarantees the right of all members to peaceful nuclear energy, and obligates the original five nuclear powers from the post-World War Two era to dismantle arsenals in stages.
The meeting comes ahead of next month's summit of the Group of Eight industrial powers in Germany, which G8 diplomats say could see members backing "further measures" against Iran if it does not comply with U.N. demands to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme, G8 diplomats said on Tuesday.
Analysts said Iran's hold-up of proceedings had dismayed fellow states in the Non-Aligned Movement of developing nations.
"NAM wants to raise pressure on nuclear weapons' states but worried that Iran's (agenda) shenanigans could prevent that, weaken respect for the NPT and play into the hands of the anti-multilateralist faction in Washington," Rebecca Johnson of the London-based Acronym Institute think tank told Reuters.
Disarmament campaigners say Iran, as well as North Korea which bolted from the NPT in 2003 and detonated a nuclear device last year, pose serious threats to the treaty's integrity.
But they also say plans by members with nuclear weapons to modernise their arsenals, even if that means cutting their overall number, have eroded respect for the NPT.
"Certain policies have broadened the scope of potential use of nuclear weapons, for example as a preventive measure or in retaliation for the use of other weapons of mass destruction," Irish envoy Paul Kavanaugh told the meeting on Tuesday.
BAD EXAMPLE?
"If the nuclear-weapons' states continue to treat nuclear weapons as a security enhancer, there is a real danger other states will start pondering whether to do the same," said Kavanaugh, who was speaking for a coalition including Egypt, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, Sweden and Mexico.
"Disarmament and non-proliferation are mutually reinforcing processes."
The United States, Britain and France denied footdragging on disarmament, detailing what they called major cuts since 1990.
But U.S. chief delegate Christopher Ford cautioned that a total removal of nuclear weapons remained unrealistic without unprecedented changes to international relations.
Apparently alluding to Iran and North Korea, he said there would have to be complete confidence that no state would violate non-proliferation covenants, and demanded an end to illicit trade in nuclear technology.
Also, global chemical and biological weapons stocks would have to be dismantled and ways found to deter armed aggression without resort to weapons of mass destruction, Ford said.
Iran held up the meeting over an agenda passage "reaffirming the need for full compliance" with the NPT, saying this would lead to debate dominated by attacks on its nuclear activity while glossing over other challenges to the treaty.
Iran, which rejects the rationale of U.N. sanctions that it is in non-compliance with NPT safeguards, agreed to a footnote in the agenda text suggested by South Africa saying that "compliance" meant "with all provisions" of the treaty.
The footnote was highlighted to assure Iran that debate would devote ample attention to calls by NAM nations on industrialised countries to do more for disarmament.
Iran's envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Tehran accepted South Africa's proposal as "a display of good will and flexibility".