IAEA Delays Vote to Send Iran to Security Council
    By Mark Heinrich and Francois Murphy
    Reuters

    Friday 03 February 2006

    The UN nuclear watchdog deferred until Saturday a vote to report Iran to the UN Security Council over fears it is seeking atomic bombs, as the European Union lobbied developing nations to back the measure.

    Diplomats said a clear majority on the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board favored notifying the council on Iran, but EU diplomats needed more time to persuade as many developing states as possible to vote yes rather than abstain.

    Iran warned it would curb IAEA checks on its atomic sites if sent to the council, a threat that seemed to influence efforts by developing states to soften the EU-sponsored resolution.

    EU diplomats said the threat would not deter their efforts to induce the Islamic Republic to change course.

    The IAEA board held an emergency session on Thursday and had planned to reconvene on Friday, before the delay was announced. The board is now due to reconvene at 0900 GMT on Saturday.

    "We are trying as best we can to secure as broad as possible consensus on the board for reporting Iran," said a diplomat with one of the sponsoring powers, Britain, France and Germany.

    "The resolution is being revised," a senior diplomat close to the IAEA said earlier.

    "Once this is on the agenda of the Security Council we foresee a graduated approach to bring additional pressure on the leadership in Tehran to achieve a negotiated settlement," US Ambassador Gregory Schulte told reporters.

    Asked about the haggling, a Western diplomat said "The threat (to restrict inspections) is on everyone's minds but we consider it blackmail and if we give in to that, there's no end to it."

    He said the consultations focused on clarifying clauses in the resolution that developing states argued could be construed as ending IAEA oversight of Iran and opening the way to sanctions before the IAEA ends its probe of Iran's atomic project.

    IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei is due to deliver a sweeping report on Iran's nuclear energy program, which Washington suspects is a disguised bomb project, at a regular March 6 meeting of the agency's board.

    US and EU leaders, aware that Russia, China and developing states on the IAEA board want to avoid a showdown with Iran, the world's No. 4 oil exporter, said that reporting Tehran would not finish off diplomacy or trigger early sanctions.

    But Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator warned that involving the Security Council would also kill talks on a Russian offer to defuse the crisis by enriching Iranian uranium to ensure the Islamic Republic cannot divert it for bombs.

    Comfortable Majority

    Analysts earlier reckoned on a majority of 25-30 on the 35-member IAEA board in favor of the resolution, with only a few "no's" from nations such as Syria, Venezuela and Cuba.

    Tehran says it wants nuclear power only for electricity.

    Russia and China endorsed the EU-sponsored resolution after Tehran was given at least until March to cooperate fully with UN investigators before the council takes any action.

    But Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani warned ElBaradei in writing that any recourse to the council "would be the final blow to the confidence of Iran" in the IAEA. Tehran would respond by halting short-notice inspections of its atomic sites.

    "The agency's monitoring would be extensively limited and all peaceful nuclear activities (in Iran) being under voluntary suspension would be resumed without any restriction," he wrote.

    Javad Vaeedi, Larijani's deputy, said there would be no point exploring the Russian proposal, due to be discussed in Moscow on February 16, if the IAEA board approved the EU resolution.

    "The US seems to be in a hyper-mode of confrontation. If this resolution is adopted, it will tie our hands. It will kill Russia's proposal," he told reporters at the IAEA in Vienna.

    A British Foreign Office spokesman said Iran's stance on the Russian initiative "has always been ambiguous" and the EU doubted Tehran was ready to negotiate in good faith.

    "This latest statement by Vaeedi is yet another own goal. We will discuss the implications with our Russian colleagues."

    The West mistrusts Iran because it hid nuclear work from the IAEA for 18 years and, diplomats say, has often stalled or evaded inspections since. The agency has found no solid proof of a nuclear weapons program but says many questions remain.

    Larijani called on Germany, France and Britain to restart talks on a diplomatic solution. But they say Iran must first reverse its move to resume atomic research and small-scale enrichment of uranium, announced on January 9.