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The United States said Tuesday it is not satisfied with a revised draft resolution demanding that the United Nations ensure the safety of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and a quick vote was unlikely. Syria had intended to push for a vote after a daylong open Security Council meeting Monday on the Middle East, but was persuaded to amend it and delay the vote for a day. But U.S. deputy ambassador James Cunningham told reporters Tuesday after seeing the new text that more consultations were needed. "I don't think the revised text is any different from the previous text. Draw your...

The Palestinians are urging the United Nations to demand that Israel ensures Yasser Arafat's safety and key Security Council members are pushing both parties to implement the peace plan known as the "road map." The council scheduled an open meeting Monday on the situation in the Middle East amid mounting criticism of the Israel's security Cabinet's decision Thursday to "remove" Arafat in a manner and time to be decided. The statement Sunday by Israel's Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that killing Arafat is a possibility was certain to intensify the Palestinian demand for speedy U.N. action. The council began consultations...

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency took a dramatically tougher line with Iran yesterday after months of diplomacy, setting an Oct. 31 deadline for the Islamic republic to prove to the world that it is not secretly building nuclear weapons. Iranian representatives to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna walked out in protest after the agency's 35-nation governing board unanimously approved the U.S.-backed deadline. In an ominous turn, the leader of Iran's delegation warned that the country may cease cooperating with U.N. nuclear inspectors, prompting fears that Iran could follow North Korea in renouncing international treaty obligations that prohibit...

Iran warned Thursday that it will not accept an October deadline to prove its nuclear aims are peaceful. But support grew at a key U.N. atomic agency meeting for that timeframe, which could set the stage for Security Council action against Tehran. Diplomats said that by late Thursday substantially more than 20 members of the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors indicated they would vote in favor of the timeframe, with an unknown number of likely abstentions. Russia, whose vote carries significant political weight, initially opposed the concept of a deadline but now was leaning toward abstaining instead...

The United States accused Iran on Tuesday of violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but said Tehran had "a last chance" to prove it wasn't running a covert weapons program. Backed by key allies, chief U.S. delegate Kenneth Brill took Iran to task on the basis of a report outlining discrepancies between its past statements on its nuclear program and findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The report, by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, lists the discovery of weapons-grade enriched uranium and other evidence that critics say point to a weapons program. "The United States believes the facts already established would...

Washington has abandoned plans to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for what it says are breaches of U.N. nuclear rules, despite worries that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, diplomats said on Friday. Diplomats told Reuters on Thursday that Washington had circulated a draft resolution among members of the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agencydeclaring Iran in ``non-compliance'' with U.N. nuclear obligations. Diplomats said Washington realized there was little support for its draft resolution, as the case for declaring Iran in breach is far from clear-cut. If the resolution had found favor and been approved by...

Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Friday that the Security Council would be unlikely to support a new resolution for sending more troops to Iraq if the U.S.-led coalition doesn't agree to share decision-making and responsibility. The U.S. campaign to get more countries to contribute troops to U.S.-led forces in Iraq faces an uphill struggle in a Security Council still bitterly divided over Washington's decision to launch a war without U.N. approval. Annan reiterated that the United Nations was not considering sending a peacekeeping force to Iraq ``but it is not excluded that the council may decide to transform the operation into...