RUSSIA: The European Union was yesterday struggling to salvage its policy on Iran's nuclear programme after it tried and failed to win Russian backing for a new plan to report Tehran to the United Nations Security Council.
Moscow's rejection of the EU's latest initiative, coming after days of escalating rhetoric, means that the united international approach on Iran's nuclear programme may be beyond repair. The EU was left contemplating pushing through a resolution at the UN's nuclear watchdog without consensus on the 35-member board - a step that India's representative warned could put the international nuclear non-proliferation system "in jeopardy".
Britain, Germany and France began yesterday at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by attempting to win round Russia to a draft resolution that called for Iran to be reported to the Security Council, but left the timing and the nature of the report open.
But Russia objected to the draft's wording that Iran was in "non-compliance" with the IAEA's rules and to the assertion that the issue was now "within the competence of the Security Council".
Pushed by the US, the EU is now deciding whether to proceed with a considerably tougher earlier resolution that would take Iran to the Security Council immediately.
Yesterday, diplomats indicated that the EU would indeed proceed with immediate referral to New York - unless Iran allowed IAEA inspectors greater access to suspected nuclear sites.
Yesterday, Iran invited Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA's director general, to Tehran, but did not give any more concrete commitments.
"Reporting Iran's non-compliance to the UN Security Council is long overdue," said Greg Schulte, US ambassador to the IAEA, yesterday. "We appreciate the EU's effort to continue to develop the broadest possible consensus to find Iran in non-compliance and prepare a report to the UN Security Council," he said.
Several countries at the IAEA board meeting in Vienna yesterday resisted taking the issue to New York. Russia said that such a step would be a "questionable decision", although it also called on Iran to maintain a freeze on activity related to uranium enrichment. South Africa and China issued similar warnings.
The EU and the US calculate that they have between 19 and 21 votes on the board - enough to carry a resolution - through the support of countries such as Australia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Argentina, Singapore, Ecuador and Ghana.
But unless a large number of dissenting countries abstain, the US and the EU run the risk of a damaging split that could undermine the international message of concern over Iran's nuclear programme expressed by recent IAEA resolutions.
While Iran maintains that its intentions are purely peaceful, the US and the EU suspect it of seeking to develop nuclear weapons capacity, particularly since Tehran concealed details of its nuclear activities for many years.
The IAEA stepped up calls on Iran to freeze all activities related to uranium enrichment - which can produce weapons-grade uranium - after Tehran's August decision to restart work on uranium conversion, a process which prepares the way for enrichment.
But Russia and, to a lesser extent, China, which both have Security Council vetoes, oppose reporting the issue to New York because they fear such a step could escalate the dispute and put at risk Iran's continuing freeze of uranium enrichment itself. Tehran has already threatened to resume enrichment and scale down co-operation with the IAEA if the issue is taken to New York. France, Germany and the UK seemed likely yesterday to delay formally proposing their resolution. - (Financial Times)