Moscow Rebuffs Rice Effort to Take Iran Nuclear Issue to UN
By Joel Brinkley
Russian leaders have told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that they do not support sending the issue of Iran’s nuclear program to the UN Security Council, and they reaffirmed their view that Iran had the legal right to enrich uranium.
The statements on Saturday, by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and others, were a sharp setback for Rice’s efforts to reach a consensus on Iran’s program. The Iranians “have this right” to enrich uranium under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Lavrov said at joint news conference with Rice, who flew to Moscow on short notice for consultations on Iran and other issues.
Rice spent two hours with Lavrov and an hour with President Vladimir Putin on Saturday morning but failed to budge them from their view, which is at odds with Washington’s position.
Still, Rice, speaking to reporters later, made it clear that the United States and its European allies would still refer Iran to the Security Council, for admonishment or sanctions, if it did not shut down its nuclear fuel reprocessing program. But with Russia opposed, the prospects in the Council look bleak, since Russia holds a veto.
“We do not agree that this matter should be sent to the Security Council,” said Sergey Kislyak, the deputy foreign minister. Iran says it needs to process nuclear fuel for civilian nuclear-power stations. But Washington and its European allies argue that Iran wants the fuel for nuclear weapons.
The board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, an arm of the United Nations, voted last month to refer the issue of Iran’s nuclear program to the Security Council. Russia and 11 other nations abstained. But the board must vote again during a meeting that begins Nov. 24 to make the actual referral. Both Lavrov and Rice said they were hoping Iran would make concessions before then, making a referral unnecessary. On Sunday, Tehran reaffirmed its intention to continue the disputed uranium processing activities, Reuters reported.
Rice said for the first time on Saturday that Washington might not push for a vote on a referral during the November meeting, suggesting that the United States might not have the votes it needed to win a second vote on the agency’s board. Some members of the board who voted in favor of the resolution last month are rotating off the board. Among those rotating on in their place are Belarus, Cuba and Syria, three nations that are unlikely to support the U.S. position.
Officials said the vote could be postponed if Iran appeared to be moving toward compliance with the board’s demands. “There will be a referral,” Rice said, but “we’re going to keep the referral option alive at a time of our choosing.”
Rice contended that the Russians had not rejected her stance, because “they did say that the Iranians do not currently have the confidence of the international community.” She also noted that the Russians had proposed to provide Iran with fuel for a civilian nuclear reactor and then to take back the spent materials. That, she said, demonstrated that Russia, too, had concerns about the Iranian program.
When asked about Lavrov’s unambiguous statements of opposition to the U.S. and European position, she repeatedly referred back to those two points and would not acknowledge the disagreement. Rice, meanwhile, announced that Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, had accepted her invitation to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday in her home state, Alabama, for “an important diplomatic weekend,” as an aide described it. Rice and Straw are friends, and she explained that the unusual trip signaled a new policy to invite foreign ministers to see parts of America besides Washington and New York.