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Opposition hardens to UN action on Iran nuclear plans

Posted on: Monday, 19 September 2005, 08:48 CDT

By Louis Charbonneau and Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) - The EU pressed the IAEA on Monday to bring Iran's nuclear program before the U.N. Security Council over suspicions it is seeking nuclear bombs.

Diplomats said Britain, France and Germany were working to convince the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which began meeting on Monday, to refer Iran to the Security Council after it resumed nuclear processing last month.

They faced intense opposition from Russia and developing countries on the IAEA board, who are sympathetic to Iran's insistence it has a right to run a peaceful nuclear program to generate electricity. Iran denies it is seeking nuclear bombs.

"Do we think we have a majority? Yes, we probably have," said one EU diplomat. "Do we think that a majority of, say, 20 out of 35 with some big countries voting against or abstaining would be enough to pressure Iran? That is the question."

The United States, which has long accused Tehran of seeking nuclear bombs, is pushing for fast action after Britain, France and Germany failed to convince Iran to mothball its nuclear program in return for political and economic incentives.

"We think a report to the Security Council is long overdue," U.S. ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte told Reuters.

"The board had wanted Iran to pursue a course of cooperation and negotiation," Schulte said. "Instead Iran appears to be pursuing a course of rhetoric and confrontation while continuing the fuel cycle activities that give us such concern."

NO IMMEDIATE SANCTIONS

EU diplomats say the EU3 would not seek immediate sanctions against Iran, but ask the Security Council to call on Tehran to refreeze its nuclear program.

Iran, however vowed on Monday to press ahead with its nuclear program after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday, branded Western efforts to restrict it as "nuclear apartheid."

The official IRNA news agency on Monday quoted Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as saying Tehran refused to bow to pressure. "We will continue our nuclear activities in the framework of the IAEA regulations."

Russia, China, Brazil and IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei oppose an immediate referral to the U.N. Council, along with many developing countries on the board.

Twelve of 14 IAEA board members from the Non-Aligned Movement, who met on Monday to forge a common position, believed Iran's case should be resolved within the IAEA, diplomats said, with only Peru and Singapore ready to back a referral.

"Everybody would like to avoid a contentious debate in the Security Council," Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh, speaking in New York, told NDTV television news.

Washington and the EU want an early IAEA referral, before the 2005-2006 IAEA board takes office with more non-aligned states. Any vote on a referral to the Security Council is unlikely before the end of the week, if at all.

The Iran issue has split IAEA board members between Western countries favoring tough action and emerging economies which accuse the West of trying to deprive poor nations of independent nuclear programs.

Western countries say that since Iran hid a uranium enrichment program from the IAEA for 18 years, the only way it can prove it is not seeking nuclear bombs is to renounce sensitive nuclear technology altogether.

Developing countries back Iran's assertion that it is not now breaking any rules under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory, that allows it to run a civilian nuclear program under the supervision of the IAEA.

(Additional reporting by Francois Murphy)

Source: REUTERS

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