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US, EU want Security Council to deal with Iran

Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 15:21 CST

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)

Source: REUTERS

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