Iran faces calls for UN action on nuclear standoff

By Parisa Hafezi and Mark John

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The United States led pressure on
Tuesday for Iran to face U.N. action after it defied calls for
an early response to an offer of incentives aimed at ending a
nuclear standoff.

Talks between chief Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani and EU
foreign policy chief Javier Solana ended with both sides
showing frustration and Tehran insisting it needed more time to
consider sweeteners for it to halt uranium enrichment.

Washington said major powers, whose foreign ministers meet
in Paris on Wednesday, had previously agreed to deal with
Tehran at the United Nations if it failed to reply. Britain
expected ministers would take a decision in Paris on the next
steps.

“Ministers when they meet tomorrow will have to take a
decision as to what that means for the resolution on the
table,” British U.N. envoy Emyr Jones Parry said in New York.

He was referring to work on a resolution against Iran that
had been delayed to allow Tehran to respond to the June 6
offer. Russia and China had been reluctant to back any
resolution they feared could lead to sanctions or even military
action.

Expectations for a breakthrough at the talks had been low
after Iran repeatedly said it was not ready to give a reply.

“We must be patient and try to negotiate … We must allow
more time for negotiations to work,” Larijani said after his
four-hour discussions with Solana on a package of technology,
trade and political incentives.

“The meeting was disappointing,” said Solana spokeswoman
Cristina Gallach, adding that the EU was not satisfied with the
meeting but expected to have further contacts with Iran.

DEFIANCE

The United States, which accuses Tehran of secretly working
to build nuclear weapons, had demanded a clear Iranian response
before next weekend’s summit of Group of Eight industrialized
nations in Russia or face possible U.N. Security Council
action.

But asked if Iran even intended to stick to its own target
date of August 22 for a response, Larijari said merely that the
timing depended on domestic committees assessing the offer.

“As soon as we get the results of this work, we shall share
them with our friends. We are determined to reach a result as
soon as possible.”

While the Brussels talks were under way, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad breathed defiance back home, saying his
country would defend its right to produce nuclear fuel.

“The Iranian nation will not retreat one iota on its way to
realizing all of its rights, including complete nuclear rights
and employing the capacities to produce nuclear fuel,” student
news agency ISNA quoted him as saying in northwest Iran.

An Iranian nuclear official said Larijani had reiterated
Iran’s insistence that it continue to enrich uranium
differences and that Solana could not answer all Larijani’s
questions.

“One of the main problems of this proposal is that there is
no clear legal guarantees,” he told Iranian reporters, speaking
on condition of anonymity.

“For example, they offer us a reactor, but it’s not clear
which country is giving it, which company, and can the
government oblige those companies to give Iran those reactors
if pressured by the United States,” the official added.

Solana’s spokeswoman rejected that assertion, saying: “All
the questions were answered. If there were no more answers, it
was because there were no more questions.”

A EU diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity said the
offer presented to Iran contained proposals that any agreement
would be deposited with Vienna-based U.N. atomic energy
watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency, and be
endorsed by a U.N. Security Council resolution.

GLITCHES

Diplomats say that with Russia and China, both veto-holders
in the U.N. Security Council, wary about imposing sanctions on
Tehran there is little pressure on it to give an early reply.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters at
U.N. headquarters: “I hope Iran is focusing very heavily on
delivering a positive response to the package.”

The package includes a state-of-the-art nuclear reactor
with a guaranteed fuel supply, economic benefits and other
incentives if Iran halts uranium enrichment.

Separately, some Western diplomats accredited to the U.N.
nuclear watchdog agency in Vienna said technical glitches
appeared to have slowed down Iran’s nuclear fuel-enrichment
program and put on hold plans to expand it.

“We have been told of problems from people in a position to
know. It’s a slowdown in the process although we haven’t been
able to quantify it yet,” said one diplomat, who like others
asked for anonymity due to the topic’s political sensitivity.

Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, rejects
charges it seeks a nuclear weapon and argues it is solely
interested in electricity generation.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Tehran, Mark
Heinrich in Vienna, Chris Buckley in Beijing, Madeline Chambers
in London, Saul Hudson in Washington and Irwin Arieff in New
York)