EU wants Security Council to tackle Iran impasse

By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union’s three biggest
powers said on Thursday that talks with Iran had reached a dead
end and agreed it should be hauled before the United Nations
Security Council over its nuclear programme.

Accusing Tehran of turning its back on the international
community, they said it had consistently breached its
commitments and failed to show the world its nuclear activities
were peaceful.

“Our talks with Iran have reached a dead end,” German
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after talks in
Berlin with his British and French counterparts and European
Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

A joint statement from the “EU3″ countries said: “We
believe the time has now come for the Security Council to
become involved.”

They said they would call for an extraordinary meeting of
the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, to seek a referral to
the Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.

OIL RISES ON IRAN TENSIONS

Oil prices climbed to a three-month high as mounting
tension over Iran stoked fears of supply disruption from the
world’s fourth biggest crude exporter, though they later pulled
back.

U.S. crude futures were up 76 cents to $64.70 by 1702 GMT,
easing from a session high of $64.90, which was the highest
level since early October.

After holding a news conference, the EU ministers headed
straight to a teleconference on Iran with U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice.

The announcement by the EU3 signified the end of 2-1/2
years of attempts to convince Iran to abandon its uranium
enrichment programme, which they suspect it intends to use to
produce fuel for nuclear weapons.

Iran says it only aims to develop a civilian nuclear power
programme in accordance with international law. It said on
Thursday it was not worried by the threat of referral to the
Security Council.

Tehran raised the stakes on Tuesday when it began to remove
IAEA seals on equipment used to enrich uranium. The process can
produce fuel for power stations or, if the uranium is highly
purified, for bombs.

The EU3 statement said the decision was a clear rejection
of its diplomacy and a challenge to the IAEA and the world.

“This is not a dispute between Iran and Europe, but between
Iran and the whole international community … It is about
Iran’s failure to build the necessary confidence in the
exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme,” it said.

EU patience with Tehran has been wearing thin for months,
with anger intensifying after Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and
queried whether six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

VETO POWERS

In their statement, the EU3 deliberately did not mention
the possibility of U.N. sanctions, an option they are holding
in reserve in the hope that simply bringing Iran to the
Security Council will persuade it to comply.

Russia and China, permanent Council members with veto
powers, will hold the key to deliberations.

The two have previously resisted referring Iran’s case
there. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Iran, a
big energy partner of Russia, could lose Moscow’s support if it
did not resume its moratorium on nuclear research.

“We will find it very difficult to continue our efforts,”
Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying.

Lavrov also told Ekho Moskvy radio that Ahmadinejad’s
statements about Israel aggravated the situation further. “All
this adds arguments for those who believe that Iran can be
dealt with only through the U.N. Security Council.”

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy stressed the
need for close consultation with Moscow and Beijing.

“Only if we’re together will there be sufficient strength
for the Iranians to return to reason,” he said.

Seeking an international consensus on sending Iran to the
Security Council, Britain said it would host talks of senior
foreign ministry officials from the United States, Russia,
China and the EU3 next week. Diplomats said these were likely
to be held on Monday.

Iran dismissed the threats to refer its nuclear programme
to the Security Council. “We are not worried,” Abdolreza
Rahmani-Fazli, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National
Security Council, told state television.

(Additional reporting by Sebastian Alison in Brussels, Oleg
Shchedrov in Moscow and Madeline Chambers in London)