Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. - REUTERS
BERLIN (Reuters):
EUROPEAN POWERS began circulating a draft resolution yesterday that asks the U.N. nuclear watchdog to report Iran to the Security Council, drawing a scornful response from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency will hold an emergency meeting on Iran's nuclear work on Feb. 2 at the request of European Union powers, an IAEA spokesman said yesterday.
France, Britain, Germany and the United States are expected to push at the session to have Tehran referred to the U.N. Security Council after it resumed research that could be used for generating electricity or making atomic bombs.
"It is clear this is politically motivated," the Iranian president said when asked about the text drafted by France, Britain and Germany, which diplomats said had so far only been seen by U.S. and EU officials.
"We are asking them to step down from their ivory towers and act with a little logic," the 48-year-old leader told reporters.
The West suspects Iran is seeking nuclear arms. Tehran says its atomic programme aims only to generate electricity.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said nuclear weapons were against Islamic teachings, as well as Iranian interests, but he vowed to pursue atomic energy.
The United States and European Union said they saw no point in holding further talks with Iran on its nuclear programmes and it was time for the Security Council to tackle the issue, ratcheting up diplomatic pressure on Tehran and opening the door to eventual sanctions.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said there was "not much to talk about" and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana agreed.
Iran wrote to the IAEA on Tuesday proposing more talks with the Europeans, who called off the negotiations last week after Tehran removed U.N. seals on uranium enrichment equipment.
Rice, speaking before talks with Solana in Washington, said the EU had made clear Iran had crossed an important threshold.
"Iran must not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. It must not be allowed to pursue activities that might lead to a nuclear weapon and on that we are fully united," she said.
CONSENSUS ELUSIVE
However, previous EU predictions that the IAEA board would send the Iran dossier to the council as soon as early next month were "looking a bit sick", a top EU diplomat said.
The diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said Russia wants the IAEA to inform the council about the Iran issue, but in some way that stops short of a formal referral.
U.S. and European officials say a majority on the IAEA board favours referral, but they want as much support as they can muster from countries like Russia, China and other sceptics.
Iran has launched its own campaign to lobby developing nations on the IAEA board ahead of any vote. Ahmadinejad is going to Syria on Wednesday, his oil minister is visiting India and other Iranian officials are in Egypt and South Africa.
South Africa urged Western governments to seek dialogue with Iran. "We appeal to all parties to refrain from any action that could further increase tension and confrontation," the South African foreign ministry said after talks between deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad and his Iranian counterpart Mehdi Mostafavi.
An EU diplomat said the draft text asks Iran "to help the (IAEA) clarify questions regarding possible nuclear weapons activities" and calls on IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei "to transmit a copy of this resolution to the Security Council".
Some Western officials have said they believe simply hauling Iran to the Security Council for censure could prompt a change of heart in Tehran, seen as keen to avoid pariah status.
Iran, aware of its strength as the world's fourth oil exporter, has said sanctions would backfire, but it is not blind to the danger that its foreign accounts might be frozen.
Central Bank Governor Ebrahim Sheibani said Iran would repatriate oil earnings held in accounts abroad if it had to.
Any move to use full-scale sanctions against Iran, let alone military action, could send world oil prices rocketing and reopen some of the international rifts opened by the Iraq war.
For now, European powers are working closely with Washington on tackling Iran's nuclear ambitions, their unity reinforced by Tehran's rebuffs to more than two years of diplomatic efforts and by Ahmadinejad's calls for the destruction of Israel.
Russia and China, veto-wielding members of the Security Council, share some of the West's concerns, but both oppose U.N. sanctions that could hurt their commercial interests in Iran.
