UN watchdog to urge Iran to resume nuclear freeze

VIENNA - Top nations of the UN nuclear watchdog will call on Iran to halt sensitive nuclear work it resumed this week but will stop short of calling on the UN Security Council to take action, diplomats said.

Iran has broken UN seals at a uranium processing plant, escalating a confrontation with Western nations which fear it may develop nuclear weapons.

Britain, France and Germany, which called an emergency session of International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-member board of governors, submitted a draft resolution to demand Tehran halt atomic work that could be used to develop weapons, diplomats in Vienna said.

The draft calls on Tehran to immediately resume "full suspension of all (nuclear) enrichment-related activities including the production of feed material", a European diplomat familiar with the text told Reuters. The diplomat said it did not refer Tehran to the UN Security Council.

Iran denies Western accusations that its atomic programme is a front for covert bomb-making. It says it needs to develop nuclear power as an alternative energy source to meet booming electricity demand and keep its oil and gas reserves for export.

While Western countries, Russia and China backed the text, some developing states such as India and Brazil opposed it. Diplomats on the board would negotiate up to when the board meets in the hope of reaching consensus.

Some developing countries fear the attempt to force Iran to give up sensitive nuclear activities could one day be used against their own nuclear programmes and therefore object to it.

States opposing the text were, however, in a clear minority and the EU's wish to have its text passed outweighed any concern that failing to win unanimous support would undermine the resolution's authority, diplomats said.

One diplomat said the EU did not want to immediately refer Iran's case to the UN Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions. This was the reason China and Russia supported the European draft resolution, he added.

However, if Iran refused to resume the suspension, the board would probably meet in early September and decide whether to send the matter to the Council, he said.

Sirus Naseri, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, said there was no legal basis for the IAEA to refer Iran to the UN Security Council.

"I think that would be a grave miscalculation by the US and particularly by Europe to move towards the path of confrontation," Naseri told the BBC's Newsnight programme. "It will be (a) big, big mistake."

He said Iran had a "legal right" to create nuclear energy.

"What we have been trying to do is see whether it would be possible to continue our enrichment activity with an agreement and through an agreement with Europe.

"It seems with the offer that the Europeans made that is no longer a possibility, at least not for the time being, and therefore we have no other alternative but to do what is our right," Naseri added.

Iranian officials reopened sensitive areas of the Isfahan uranium processing plant in central Iran on Wednesday after UN seals were broken, making it fully operational.

Iran restarted work at less sensitive areas of the plant on Monday after rejecting economic and political incentives from Britain, France and Germany, known as the EU3, to give up its nuclear programme.

The UN watchdog put on the seals after Tehran agreed with the EU3 to halt all nuclear fuel work last November to ease tension after the IAEA found Iran had hidden weapons-grade highly enriched uranium.

IAEA officials agreed Tehran's request to remove the seals after installing surveillance cameras to ensure no uranium is shifted away from the plant for any covert weapons work.

- REUTERS