Russia ready to send Iran before UN

LONDON - European powers began drafting a resolution to have Iran referred to the United Nations Security Council next month over its contentious nuclear work, diplomats said, after Russia and the West neared agreement on strategy.

Britain's Foreign Office said Britain, Germany and France would call for an emergency meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation board of governors in Vienna on February 2-3. A vote on sending Iran to the Security Council could be held then.

Iran's resumption of research that could advance a quest for civilian atomic energy or bombs has sparked a flurry of Western diplomacy in pursuit of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) referral to the council, which could impose sanctions.

Diplomats said a London meeting of permanent council members Britain, France, Russia, China and the United States, along with Germany, sought to bridge differences over Iran to enable an emergency IAEA session and vote.

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 board, EU diplomats said.

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

Moscow, with a US$1 billion ($1.44 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 yesterday that 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 US, 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 comment from China. Beijing said last week that resorting to the Security Council might "complicate the issue", citing Iran's threat to halt snap UN inspections of its atomic plants.

Some analysts have said China might relent, at least abstaining from a vote, if Russian opposition ended.

Diplomats said the resolution drafting was at an early stage and the West, keen on broad unanimity for referral, would also sound out developing states on the IAEA board such as South Africa, Libya and Cuba, seen up to now as likely to vote "No".

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.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw suggested Iran could rethink its path 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."

- REUTERS