US, EU want Security Council to deal with Iran

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and the European
Union’s three biggest powers said on Thursday talks with Iran
over its nuclear program were at an impasse and that Tehran
should be brought before the U.N. Security Council.

Such a move could eventually lead to international
sanctions on the world’s fourth biggest oil exporter.

Accusing Tehran of defiantly turning its back on the
international community, the western powers 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.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined their call
for an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, or IAEA, board of governors to discuss what she called
Iran’s “defiant” resumption of uranium enrichment work.

“That meeting would be to report Iran’s noncompliance with
its safeguard obligations to the U.N. Security Council,” Rice
told a news conference in Washington.

Tehran shot back that it was not worried by the threat of
bringing the issue to the Security Council and Iran’s chief
nuclear negotiator reiterated his country’s stance that its
nuclear plans were for peaceful means.

“We have already declared that our intention is to do
nuclear research, it has nothing to do with enrichment,” Ali
Larijani told CNN.

CHINA AND RUSSIA

If Iran is referred to the Security Council, it will not
automatically face sanctions. Rice said there was a “menu of
possibilities” but declined to give any specifics

The EU3 and the United States will also have to fight hard
to win the support of Russia and China, permanent Council
members with veto powers, both to send Iran to the Council and
for tough action once the case is referred there.

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

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

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.

U.S. crude oil futures rose on Thursday on the news of
possible Council referral. At 12:55 p.m. EST (1755 GMT), crude
for delivery in February was up 56 cents at $64.50 a barrel
after hitting $65.10, the highest since October 4, on the New
York Mercantile Exchange.

DIPLOMATIC DEAD END

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

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.

“These provocative actions by the Iranian regime have
shattered the basis for negotiation,” said Rice of the breaking
of the seals.

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

Rice stressed that the latest moves by the United States
and European allies represented a “new phase in diplomacy” and
not the end of diplomacy.

Her top diplomat at the U.N., John Bolton, was asked about
the possibility of the United States attacking Iran to stop it
from getting the bomb, during a question and answer session
after giving a speech in the German capital.

“The objective we are pursuing is a peaceful and diplomatic
effort to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability
and it’s just not even on the horizon that anything like you’ve
described is contemplated,” Bolton said.

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

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 Monday.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in Berlin, Saul
Hudson in Washington, Sebastian Alison in Brussels, Oleg
Shchedrov in Moscow and Madeline Chambers in London)