US submits new draft resolution on Iran to UN Security Council.

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - U.S. delegation has introduced a
new draft resolution on Iran to the UN Security Council.
Diplomats at the UN said the draft did not meet any objections from
the six countries negotiating the Iranian nuclear program /five permanent
members of the Security Council and Germany/.
It is not clear at this stage, however, how soon the countries having
seats on the Council will be able to coordinate the new document, analysts
covering the UN told Itar-Tass.
"It's unclear so far how much time the non-permanent members of the
Council will need to scrutinize the resolution," an analyst said.
Also, experts say the Iranian-Turkish-Brazilian agreement on the
exchange of enriched uranium, which the three countries signed in Teheran
Monday, may have an impact on the process of coordination of the
resolution.
Under the trilateral agreement, Iran agrees to send 1.2 tons of its
low-enriched /3.5% purity/ uranium to Turkey within two weeks after it
signs an agreement with the Vienna Group consisting of Russia, the U.S.
and France. In exchange for it, Teheran will get back 120 kilograms of
highly enriched /20% purity/ uranium.
Along with it, Turkey pledges to return the low-enriched uranium to
Iran if the transaction is disrupted for one reason or another.
The problem is that the Iranian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman
Ramin Mehmanparast said almost immediately after the signing of the
trilateral agreement Iran will continue enriching uranium to 20% purity.
This gave grounds to the U.S. officials to say that the country
continues encroaching on the UN Security Council's resolutions and has no
plans for stopping the uranium enrichment process in line with the
international community's demands.
Since 2006, the Council has introduced and then toughened sanctions
against Iran on three occasions.

.Vladivostok to host process meeting on elections in Siberia, Far East.

VLADIVOSTOK, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - A process meeting on organizing and
holding elections in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East October 10, 2010,
which is a unified day for voting, will be held here Wednesday.
The list of its participants includes officials from Russia's Central
Electoral Commission, the Russian President's plenipotentiary
representatives in the Urals, Siberian and Far-Eastern Federal Districts,
officials from federal agencies of power, representatives of agencies in
charge of statistics and data reporting, officials from territorial and
regional agencies of power, functionaries from political parties, and
executives of the All-Russia State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company.
In line with the tradition of such meetings, the participants will
focus on the activity of and goals for electoral commissions October 10,
spokespeople for the administration of Primorsky /Maritime/ territory told
Itar-Tass.
The meeting will also look somewhat ahead and will discuss
preparations for the election to Russia's State Duma in 2011 and the
presidential election in 2012.

.Earthquake measuring 5 pts registered off Kamchatka's coast.

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - An earthquake measuring
5.0 points on the open-ended Richter scale has been registered in the Sea
of Okhotsk off the Kamchatka Peninsula's coast, the Geophysical Service of
the Russian Academy of Sciences said.
The quake occurred at 01:14 local daylight saving time Wednesday
/13:14 GMT Tuesday/. The epicenter was located at a distance of 365
kilometers to the northwest of the Kamchatka territory capital
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and the seismic focus was identified at the depth
of 20 kilometers below the sea floor.
There have been no reports on victims or destructions and the
authorities did not call a tsunami threat.

.Discussions of constitutional amendments to round up in Kyrgyzstan.

BISHKEK, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - Discussions of amendments to the
Constitution and the submitting of proposals on them are getting to an end
in Kyrgyzstan, a spokesman for the country's interim government told
Itar-Tass.
The Constitutional Convention that was convened several weeks ago and
brought together representatives of 75 political parties, public
movements, human rights associations, and agencies of state power has
drafted the final version of Kyrgyzstan's basic law that will be put up
for a referendum June 27.
After heated debates, the developers of the renovated Constitution
have kept intact the provisions identifying Kyrgyzstan as a secular state
and giving the Russian language the status of an official one.
If the Constitution is endorsed at the referendum, this country will
go over to a presidential-parliamentary form of rule with heavily limited
powers of the President.
Some of the functions that belong to the President at the moment, like
the formation of the cabinet of ministers, will go over to members of the
national parliament, which will be elected on party tickets.
In the meantime, there is no unanimity on problems of the
constitutional reform even among members of the interim government.
Evidence of the disunity of opinions surfaced Tuesday when Azimbek
Beknazarov, a deputy prime minister in charge of the judiciary reform and
law enforcement agencies said Kyrgyzstan should reintroduce the
Constitution of 1993 that stipulates the presence of a bicameral
parliament instead of the incumbent unicameral one.
The new authorities also feel apprehensive of attempts on the part of
some political forces to disrupt the forthcoming referendum.
Azimbek Beknazarov told a news conference the interim government has
the information indicating the plans of political opponents of the new
authorities to obstruct the presidential and parliamentary elections in
the fall of 2010.
-0-kle


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next