Russia and EU in deadlock over Iran

VIENNA - Russia and the European Union's three main powers were deadlocked at the UN nuclear watchdog, unable to agree on how to deal with an Iranian atomic program that the West fears is aimed at making weapons.

For two years, France, Britain and Germany have tried to persuade the Islamic republic that it needs to abandon its nuclear fuel program to convince the world that its atomic ambitions are peaceful as Tehran insists they are.

While these talks continued, the EU trio, Russia, China and other board members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) repeatedly rejected Washington's attempts to bring Iran's case to the highest UN body, which could impose sanctions.

Last month, the talks collapsed after Tehran restarted uranium processing and rejected an EU offer of economic and political incentives if it scrapped its uranium enrichment program, prompting the EU trio to join Washington in calling for the case to be sent to the Security Council.

But the Western drive to haul a defiant Iran before the Council has met fierce resistance by two permanent, veto-wielding members of the Security Council -- China and Russia.

"We are decisively opposed to an artificial exacerbation of the situation, including the transfer of this question to the UN Security Council," Russia's IAEA ambassador Grigory Berdennikov told the IAEA board at a closed-door meeting.

Bowing to Russian and Chinese pressure, France, Britain and Germany dropped a demand from their draft IAEA resolution that would force the board to report Iran now to the UN Security Council over fears it wants atom bombs, EU diplomats said.

Rather than sending the case immediately to the Security Council, the new draft obliges the board to send the matter to UN headquarters in New York at a later, undefined date.

Russia rejected this second version, saying it refused to allow the issue to go before the Security Council at all.

"This text is like a plane that cannot fly," Berdennikov was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.

Simply being on the Security Council's agenda can be embarrassing in itself, since it is the world's top body charged with monitoring global peace and security. It can issue anything from verbal warnings to travel restrictions for officials or even impose a total trade embargo on countries if it chooses.

- REUTERS