Nonaligned states set to back Iran at IAEA meeting

VIENNA, June 13 (Reuters) Non-aligned states will back Iran's right to nuclear work at a UN meeting this week, unmoved by US calls to add their weight to efforts to get Tehran to stop enriching uranium, diplomats said.

UN Security Council powers offered Iran a package of incentives last week and Washington has nudged Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) states to endorse it at the session of the International Atomic Energy Agency governing board under way at a critical juncture, with Iran still considering the proposals.

A NAM vote of confidence would help the United States and the European Union deflect Iranian assertions that it is being bullied by a small group of powerful countries bent on stunting the Islamic Republic's development by denying it nuclear energy.

Diplomats from the NAM, whose 114 members span almost all developing states including Iran and comprise two-thirds of the United Nations, said the group would reissue a declaration backing Iran it made in Malaysia on May 30.

''We expect to refer to the NAM ministers statement and quote from it. We won't make a new statement referring to the current (big power) proposal or make supportive noises in this regard,'' said a NAM diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

''NAM does not want to pronounce on a proposal that basically no one knows full details about,'' the diplomat added.

Elements of the package of trade and technology sweeteners offered to Iran by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany have been leaked by Western diplomats. They include unspecified penalties should Iran rebuff the offer.

NAM countries have long been concerned that making Iran abandon its nuclear fuel enrichment programme would set a precedent that could prevent other developing states pursuing an atomic energy option to boost their economies.

They strictly oppose any resort to sanctions as mooted by the West, seeing no justification so long as Iran has not been proved to be using enrichment technology to build atom bombs in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

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