EU backs down on Iran
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-22 20:00

The European Union's three main powers dropped a demand on Thursday that the U.N. nuclear watchdog immediately report Iran to the Security Council over its atomic plans, following opposition from Russia and China.

Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh reads some notes before an IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna September 22, 2005. The European Union's three main powers have dropped a demand that the U.N. nuclear watchdog report Iran to the Security Council over its atomic plans due to opposition from Russia and China, diplomats said on Thursday. [Reuters]

Moscow and Beijing have warned the United States, France, Britain and Germany against stepping up the nuclear standoff with Iran, undermining the Western drive to haul Tehran before the U.N.'s highest body for possible sanctions.

Earlier this week, the EU had circulated a U.S.-backed draft resolution calling on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) governing board to report Iran's secretive nuclear program to the Security Council.

But with at least a dozen of the 35 members of the IAEA board opposed to the EU resolution -- including China and Russia -- the EU cut out the key demand from a revised draft.

The new draft, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, omitted any explicit threat that Iran would be referred to the Security Council but implied that the IAEA board could choose to refer the matter to the Council in the future.

"The history of concealment of Iran's nuclear activities ... and the resulting absence of confidence that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes have given rise to questions that are within the competence of the Security Council...," the draft said.

It also declared that Iran had been in "non-compliance" with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which normally requires the IAEA board to notify the Council.

EU diplomats said they hoped to get unanimous support for what they called a very tough and fair draft resolution.

But it was unclear if the Russians and Chinese were prepared to support it. If Moscow and Beijing opposed it, EU diplomats said the IAEA board would put the original tougher resolution, which had at least a simple majority of support, to a vote despite Russian and Chinese opposition.

Iranian negotiator Javad Vaeedi said opposition from Russia and China helped stop the EU from taking Tehran to the Security Council.

"Our firm stance, China and Russia's backing and also a lack of legal basis caused the EU's withdrawal," the official IRNA news agency quoted Vaeedi as saying.

EU, U.S. WON'T GIVE UP

U.S. Ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte said that "a solid and growing majority of the IAEA board now also agrees on the need to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

"We support the European Union's effort to continue to develop the broadest possible consensus to find Iran in non-compliance and to prepare a report to the U.N. Security Council," Schulte said.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said there was still room for dialogue to resolve the issue. He called for a resumption of EU-Iran talks that collapsed after two years when Tehran resumed uranium processing work at a plant in Isfahan last month.

Top EU foreign ministers insisted Iran was not off the hook.

In a letter published in the Wall Street Journal, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Britain and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Tehran had shown no sign of flexibility despite repeated offers of cooperation by the EU.

"The spotlight is now on the IAEA Board of Governors to respond," the article said.

"The proliferation risks if Iran continues on its current path are very great. We hope all members of the international community will remain united," it said.

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