IAEA debates taking Iran to Security Council

By Mark Heinrich and Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog inched on
Thursday toward reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council
over fears it secretly seeks atomic bombs but the agency’s
chief said Tehran did not pose “an imminent threat.”

U.S. and European Union leaders, aware that Russia, China
and developing nations are keen to avoid a confrontation with
Iran, said Security Council involvement did not mean an end to
diplomacy or that Tehran would necessarily face U.N. sanctions.

Diplomats said EU sponsors of a resolution to report Iran
were in sharp debate with developing states over what role the
council should play, but predicted that up to 30 of the 35
nations on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing
board would eventually vote in favor.

The IAEA meeting adjourned in mid-afternoon until 1400 GMT
on Friday, meaning there would be no vote before then.

Tehran has threatened to hit back by halting U.N. spot
checks of its atomic sites and pursuing wide-scale enrichment
of uranium, which can be used for atomic power plants or
warheads.

“Iran has always been ready to remove ambiguities about its
nuclear activities. If, however, a historical mistake is made
(involving the Security Council), Iran has to implement a law
to suspend all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA,” Tehran’s
envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, said in a statement.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said the special meeting was
to prod Iran to resolve years of suspicion about its nuclear
goals before his report to a regular IAEA session on March 6.

CONFIDENCE-BUILDING

“We are reaching a critical phase but it is not a crisis
situation. It’s about confidence-building and it is not about
an imminent threat,” he said. Intelligence estimates of when
Iran might be able to build a bomb range from two to over 10
years.

Iran concealed nuclear activities from the IAEA for 18
years until 2003. In September, the IAEA declared Iran
non-compliant with its commitments as a party to the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, but put off referring it to the
Security Council.

The Islamic Republic, whose president has called for Israel
to be “wiped off the map,” says it wants nuclear energy only to
produce electricity. The IAEA has found no hard evidence to the
contrary but says Iran still has many questions to answer.

Chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said sending
Iran to the Security Council had “no legal and technical
basis.”

ElBaradei emphasized that even strong advocates of taking
Iran to the Security Council, such as Washington, were not
asking the world body to consider sanctions soon. “All of them
are saying that this is simply a continuation of diplomacy.”

EU powers called the extraordinary IAEA session after Iran
on January 9 broke a 2-1/2-year moratorium on atomic
development activity agreed with Britain, France and Germany.

Washington and European allies then persuaded Russia and
China, which have important commercial interests in Iran, to
back reporting Tehran to the Security Council.

The rare show of unity among the U.N. big five emerged only
after Western powers agreed the council would not act against
Iran until after ElBaradei’s March report.

This would allow time for Russia and Iran to work on
details of Moscow’s offer to purify uranium for Tehran, a joint
venture aimed at preventing diversion of nuclear fuel to
bomb-making. Negotiations on the compromise proposal are set
for February 16.

“Let me be clear: we are not now seeking sanctions or other
punitive measures against Iran,” U.S. Ambassador Gregory
Schulte told the board.

German Ambassador Herbert Honsowitz, speaking for the EU,
said that to reduce tensions, Iran must reverse its announced
resumption of nuclear fuel research and some uranium
enrichment.

Malaysian envoy Rajmah Hussain, representing the
Non-Aligned Movement bloc at the IAEA, urged “patience and
restraint.”

Developing nations fear that referring Iran to the Security
Council could cripple their own nuclear power options.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said any IAEA vote
against his nation would do no good, saying: “Nuclear energy is
our absolute right and we will never step back from our right.”

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in London, Paul
Hughes, Parisa Hafezi and Parinoosh Arami in Tehran)