United Nations – Nigeria says diplomatic negotiation remains “the only sustainable mechanism’’ to resolving all outstanding issues on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The meeting heard a 90-day report from a UN committee monitoring the arms embargo imposed on Iran over its nuclear programme.

The report highlights that Iran is still violating UN imposed arms embargo, including two reported violations of resolution 1747 last year.

The UN Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria had reported seizing 13 shipping containers of illegal arms allegedly originating from Iran.

Speaking on Iran’s nuclear programme, Ogwu expressed concern with the lack of progress in discussions held in Istanbul in January between the “EU3+3” (UK, Germany, France, U.S, Russian and China) and Iran.

The Nigerian diplomat also regretted Iran’s lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over its nuclear programme.

Nigeria urged Iran to build “the confidence of the international community on the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities”.

Earlier, Western diplomats on the Security Council expressed concern at mounting reports of Iranian violations of the UN arms embargo.

Speaking at the Council, Britain’s Ambassador to the UN, Mr Mark Lyall Grant, referred to the recent seizure of rockets intended for the Taliban in Afghanistan and 50 tons of weapons Israel confiscated enroute to Egypt.

“The briefing today and relevant reports rightly characterised Iran’s behaviour as part of a pattern of deliberate circumvention of the Security Council’s existing sanctions regime.