The U.N. nuclear watchdog and its governing board
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VIENNA, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The Board of Governors of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets on Thursday to discuss the latest IAEA report on Iran which details Iran's 18-year concealment of potentially arms-related research. WHAT IS THE IAEA? The Vienna-based IAEA is an autonomous organisation within the United Nations created in 1957 in response to fears that discoveries about the power of atomic energy would lead to the uncontrolled spread of nuclear weapons. Its two main roles are policing compliance with the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the global pact aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, and promoting the safe use of nuclear technology in industry and medicine. The IAEA Director-General is Mohamed ElBaradei, who has run the agency since 1997. His predecessor, Hans Blix, led the agency for 16 years before becoming the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq. THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS The IAEA's highest body, the 35-member Board of Governors, is appointed every September at the IAEA's General Conference. Membership rotates but in practice all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council stay on the board. The board appoints the IAEA's Director-General, who answers directly to the United Nations Secretary-General. The board can declare a country in non-compliance with its IAEA Safeguards Agreement, a key part of the NPT, in which case it must report the state to the U.N. Security Council. The Security Council can then issue a statement condemning the state, impose diplomatic or economic sanctions on it, or ignore the issue altogether. A country is in non-compliance when the board decides that the IAEA is unable to verify that the country is not diverting nuclear resources to a weapons programme, or when it discovers that a country has diverted resources. In the case of Iran, the United States says it has been in non-compliance though few other board members share this view. BOARD MEMBERS The following countries are members of the Board of Governors until September 2004: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Tunisia, the United States, and Vietnam. Of the 15 European Union (EU) member states and 10 EU accession countries, 11 currently have seats on the Board. There are 13 members of the Non-Aligned Movement on the Board. HOW THE BOARD REACHES DECISIONS The Board usually seeks to adopt resolutions by consensus. This can only be achieved if there are no objections to the draft resolution, statement or report submitted to the board. At the September Board of Governors meeting, a resolution on Iran was adopted "without a vote" after then board member Iran left the meeting in protest. The board can also put draft submissions to a vote, though this is not necessary when there is consensus.
