Still time for engagement
By Behrouz Kamalvandi
Spokesman of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
In the final hours of November 21, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna passed an anti-Iranian resolution, sponsored by Germany, France, the UK, and the US, without absolute majority and with a relatively weak vote. The sponsors of the resolution, who had drafted the text in line with their pressure policies before the IAEA director-general’s visit to Iran and publicized it on the last day of Mr. Rafael Grossi’s trip, had a tough time convincing other countries to join the resolution. To this end, they had toned down or deleted parts of the original draft. Nevertheless, despite exerting all-out pressure on member states through threats and enticements, they failed to even repeat the reduced number of yes votes they had secured for their previous resolution. In fact, only 19 out of the 35 member states of the Board of Governors voted in favor of the resolution.
Notably, key countries or relatively independent nations sided with Iran. In addition to China, Russia, Burkina Faso, and Venezuela, which voted against the resolution, 12 other countries, including major players like Brazil, India, South Africa, Indonesia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Armenia, Ghana, Egypt, and Colombia, defied intense pressure from European countries and the US, both in Vienna and in their capitals, and refused to vote in favor of the resolution.
This escalating pressure from the three European countries and the US comes despite their own failure to honor their commitments, whether under the JCPOA or other international obligations. There are numerous examples of their oppressive policies toward the Palestinian issue, where they have fully supported the Tel Aviv butchers and accomplices in genocide, even going so far as to threaten the International Criminal Court, which had issued arrest warrants for war criminals, and threatening to impose sanctions on the court and its members. Needless to say, this approach has not yielded the desired results so far, and in the recent case of Iran, it has led to two clear outcomes that they should have logically grasped by now.
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