Vote to report Iran delayed

VIENNA - The UN nuclear watchdog put off until later today a vote to report Iran to the UN Security Council over concerns it is seeking atomic bombs, as European Union powers lobbied developing nations to back the measure.

Diplomats said a clear majority on the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board favoured notifying the council on Iran but the EU held up the vote to try to hammer out a broad consensus with developing states without abstentions.

The delay arose from developing countries' attempts since Thursday to soften an EU-initiated resolution to report Iran after the Islamic Republic threatened to curb UN inspections of its atomic sites if sent to the Security Council.

An EU diplomat said later a deal with the 15 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations looked unlikely but the resolution would be tabled anyway for a vote when the Vienna-board reconvened at 9am British time (10pm NZT) on Saturday.

He said the EU rejected NAM attempts to delete a clause mandating that all IAEA investigative reports and resolutions, including one in 2005 declaring Iran non-compliant with nuclear non-proliferation safeguards, be passed to the Council.

"That was a no-no. Paragraph 2 is the holy grail for us," he told Reuters. "So in the end it looks like every country will vote on its own conscience. We expect 25 'yes' votes with about 5-7 abstentions and three 'no's'," he said.

Another Western diplomat said that to remove Paragraph 2 would have surrendered to Iranian intimidation. "The threat (to restrict inspections) is on everyone's minds but we consider it blackmail and if we give in to that, there's no end to it."

Diplomats from the EU trio of France, Germany and Britain said the threat would not deter their efforts to induce the Islamic Republic to come clean on what they suspect is military involvement in nuclear work and to stop enrichment of uranium.

But NAM states argued Paragraph 2 could be construed as ending IAEA oversight of Iran and opening the way to Security Council sanctions before the IAEA concludes probes into Iran's atomic energy drive, which it concealed for 18 years until 2003.

SWEEPING IAEA REPORT PENDING

IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei is due to deliver a sweeping report on Iran's nuclear energy programme at a regular March 6 meeting of the agency's board.

Iran says it wants only nuclear energy, not bombs, and has a sovereign right to making uranium fuel on its own soil.

US and EU leaders, aware that Russia, China and developing states on the IAEA board want to avoid a showdown with Iran, the world's No. 4 oil exporter, explained that reporting Tehran would not finish off diplomacy or trigger early sanctions.

Russia and China endorsed the resolution in a deal between the five permanent, veto-wielding Security Council powers last week, removing a crippling barrier to IAEA board action on Iran.

"Once this is on the agenda of the Security Council we foresee a graduated approach to bring additional pressure on the leadership in Tehran to achieve a negotiated settlement," US Ambassador Gregory Schulte told reporters.

But Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator warned that involving the Security Council would also kill talks on a Russian offer to defuse the crisis by enriching Iranian uranium to ensure the Islamic Republic cannot divert it for bombs.

Iran says reporting it to the Security Council has no legal basis since the IAEA has found no hard proof of bomb-making. It says the move arises from a US agenda to topple its Islamic government, which has called for Israel's destruction.

"The Iranian threat is serious and there's fear we are entering a risky period of polarisation and confrontation that will do no good for either side," said a senior diplomat not involved in the push to report Iran to the Council.

"If the IAEA loses snap inspection access, a vacuum will ensure whereby others step in and make accusations the IAEA cannot check out, and where could that lead? We are in need of ideas on how to solve this peacefully."

Analysts earlier reckoned on a majority of 25-30 on the 35-member IAEA board in favour of the resolution, with only a few "no's" from nations such as Syria, Venezuela and Cuba.

Russia and China approved the EU-sponsored resolution after Tehran was given at least until March to cooperate fully with UN investigators before the council takes any action.

But Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani warned ElBaradei in writing that any recourse to the council "would be the final blow to the confidence of Iran" in the IAEA.

"The agency's monitoring would be extensively limited and all peaceful nuclear activities (in Iran) being under voluntary suspension would be resumed without any restriction," he wrote.

Larijani called on Germany, France and Britain to restart talks on a diplomatic solution. But they say Iran must first reverse its move to resume atomic research and small-scale enrichment of uranium, announced on January 9. 

- REUTERS