* Resolution overwhelmingly approved by 35-nation IAEA board
* Six world powers sought broad backing for censuring Tehran
* Iran defying pressure to curb uranium enrichment
* Iran's "procrastination unacceptable," EU says
VIENNA, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The 35-nation board of the U.N.
nuclear watchdog passed a resolution on Thursday rebuking Iran
for defying demands to curb uranium enrichment and failing to
clarify mounting concerns about its suspected research into
atomic bombs.
Two days after Israel ramped up threats to attack its
arch-enemy Iran, the board overwhelmingly adopted the measure
voicing "serious concern" about Tehran's nuclear advances but
also making clear its desire for a peaceful resolution of the
row.
Only Cuba voted against the resolution. Three countries,
including Egypt, abstained, according to diplomats who took part
in the closed-door meeting at International Atomic Energy Agency
headquarters in Vienna.
The resolution faults Iran for disregarding U.N. resolutions
calling on it to suspend uranium enrichment - a conduit to
producing fuel for nuclear power stations or bombs - and open up
to investigations of signs that it wants nuclear arms know-how.
Six world powers had tabled a resolution text on Wednesday,
aiming to raise pressure on Iran to relent, a day after Israel
signalled it was almost out of patience with the use of
diplomacy and sanctions to try to rein in the Islamic Republic.
World powers are keen for a diplomatic breakthrough that
would avert another, potentially devastating Middle East war.
South Africa earlier on Thursday threw the meeting into
confusion by putting forward an amendment which some Western
diplomats said might have weakened the language towards Iran.
But a compromise was hammered out during a three-hour
adjournment of the meeting, the diplomats said, satisfying the
United States, Russia, France, China, Britain and Germany.
South Africa's proposal was a nod to some in the Non-Aligned
Movement of mainly developing nations (NAM) who do not regard
Iran's nuclear programme necessarily as a bomb risk.
The amendment concerned a section of the text demanding that
Iran immediately implement a yet-to-be agreed framework accord
with the IAEA on how the agency should conduct its investigation
into suspected nuclear explosives research in the Islamic state.
The compromise changed the original text but not as far as
the South African proposal, easing Western fears that it could
lower the heat on Tehran to cooperate with IAEA sleuths.
STYMIED INVESTIGATION
The IAEA has tried in a series of high-profile meetings with
Iran that began in January to agree a "Structured Approach" on
how to carry out its inquiry. IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano
said this week that no concrete results had been achieved,
calling the lack of progress "frustrating".
"Iran has not engaged seriously and without preconditions in
talks aimed at restoring international confidence in the
exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme," the
27-nation European Union said in a statement to the board.
"Iran's procrastination is unacceptable," the bloc said.
A U.S. envoy at the meeting accused Iran of "systematically
demolishing" a facility at the Parchin military site that IAEA
inspectors want to visit as part of their investigation.
"Iran has been taking measures that appear consistent with
an effort to remove evidence of its past activities at Parchin,"
senior U.S. diplomat Robert Wood told the board gathering.
The resolution could have been approved by the board even of
governors without South Africa's support, but the global powers
were keen to ensure near-unanimous backing.
Iran says it wants to produce electricity from enriched
uranium and not bombs. Refined uranium can be used to fuel
nuclear power plants. If enriched to a high degree, it can
provide the explosive core for a nuclear warhead.
Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed
state, sees the danger of Iran developing an atom bomb as a
threat to its existence and has stepped up hints of air strikes
on Iranian nuclear installations.
U.S. President Barack Obama's administration says there is
still time for diplomacy and sanctions to make Tehran change
course.
