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Japan welcomes U.N. statement on Iran's nuke program+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 30_(Kyodo) _ Japan on Thursday welcomed the U.N. Security Council's adoption of a draft presidential statement that calls on Iran to halt uranium enrichment activities. "Our country sees the presidential statement as a clear, unified message of the international community to Iran and values this as an important step toward continued efforts to resolve the issue in a diplomatic manner," Senior Vice Foreign Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki said at a news conference. Shiozaki said Japan hopes that Iran would "seriously take this presidential statement to heart and sincerely respond" to it. Japan, for its part, will "continue to take every opportunity to urge Iran" to heed such international calls, Shiozaki said. The statement also requests that International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei report to the council and the IAEA Board of Governors on Iran's compliance in 30 days, asking Iran to stop uranium enrichment activities during that time. "The ball is now in Iran's court," a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said, adding that the focus of the international community has now shifted to how Iran will address the issue within the 30-day time limit. |