EU trio starts move to refer Iran to UN Security Council

LONDON - Britain, France, Germany told the United States, Russia and China they planned to call for an emergency meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog to discuss Iran on February 2-3, Britain said on Monday.

The EU trio told UN Security Council permanent members China, Russia and the United States of their intention at a meeting of senior officials in London which was called after Iran resumed some sensitive nuclear work last week.

"The EU/E3 informed other participants (of the meeting) of their intention to call for an extraordinary IAEA board meeting on 2-3 February," a spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said.

The European Union and United States are keen to persuade Russia and China to back a referral of Iran to the Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions after over two years of talks have ended in stalemate.

A referral to the Security Council has to go through the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"There was serious concern about Iranian moves to restart enrichment related activities (research and development) contrary to the appeals of the international community not to do so," the British spokesman said.

After Russia said it was "very close" to Western views on Iran, which favour diplomatic action to curb its atomic project, Germany, France and Britain began drafting a referral resolution to submit to the IAEA's 35-nation board, an EU diplomat said.

"It's short. It calls for (IAEA director-general Mohamed) ElBaradei to report Iran to the Security Council," the diplomat said, asking for anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity.

Moscow, with a US$1 billion stake building Iran's first atomic reactor, and Beijing, reliant on Iranian oil imports, have so far thwarted such a step by the IAEA board of governors.

But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Monday he was confident China and Russia would back the EU in sending the issue to the Security Council.

President Vladimir Putin signalled a change when he said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow: "As for Russia, and Germany and our European partners and the United States, we have very close positions on the Iranian problem." It was the clearest hint yet that Moscow, which as Iran's main energy partner wields the greatest potential foreign leverage over Tehran, was losing patience with the Islamic republic since it resumed nuclear fuel research last week.

However, Putin also warned the crisis should be solved "without abrupt, erroneous steps" - a possible nod to concerns of some that a rapid push towards UN sanctions could backfire. "We must move very carefully in this area," he said.

There was no immediate comment from China. Beijing said last week that resorting to the Security Council might "complicate the issue", citing Iran's threat to hit back by halting snap UN inspections of its atomic plants.

Diplomats said the resolution drafting was at an early stage and the EU was consulting with all IAEA board members to obtain as much unanimity as possible if it came to a vote.

Opec giant Iran, the world's fourth-largest exporter of crude oil, has warned that any attempt to isolate it could drive up world energy prices, damaging industrialised economies.

Russia and China are veto-wielding permanent members of the Council, along with the United States, Britain and France, and all five have nuclear arsenals.

Diplomats with the EU trio of Germany, France and Britain that scrapped a moribund dialogue with Iran last week said Russia seemed to be edging into line with Western views but that China still looked more difficult to win over.

They said China's resistance would be harder to overcome, although Beijing's decision to join other permanent Council members in formally protesting against Iran's move showed that the Chinese shared Western concerns.

Iran says it seeks atomic energy only to power its economy - the IAEA has unearthed no proof to the contrary - within its rights as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But Tehran's concealment of nuclear activities for almost 20 years until it was exposed by dissident exiles in 2002, a spotty record of co-operation with the IAEA since, and calls for wiping out Israel have fired Western resolve to rein in the Iranians.

ElBaradei told Newsweek magazine that it was not impossible Iran had a secret nuclear arms programme.

"If they have the nuclear material and they have a parallel weaponisation programme along the way, they are really not very far - a few months - from a weapon," he said.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw suggested Iran could rethink its course merely by being put in Security Council hands and that sanctions, which are unpalatable to many industrialised states that import Iranian oil, might not prove necessary.

"The fact that Iran is so concerned not to see the matter referred ... I think underlines the strength of the authority of that body," Straw said at a London conference on terrorism.

Western officials say Iran crossed a "red line" last week by stripping IAEA seals from equipment that purifies uranium, used for nuclear fuel, or if highly enriched, for bombs.

But Tehran has said only direct dialogue, not threats of Security Council referral, can defuse the dispute with the West.

Putin said a compromise proposal under which Russia would enrich uranium for Iran had drawn varying Iranian responses.

"The conclusion was that our Iranian partners were not ruling out this proposition," he told reporters.

Many Iranians favour acquiring a full nuclear fuel industry to be taken seriously as a Middle East power and deter what they see as threats of US and Israeli attack. Washington calls Iran a major orchestrator of terrorism, something Tehran denies.

- REUTERS