VIENNA, 23 September 2005 — The European Union yesterday offered a slight compromise on referring Iran to the UN Security Council, telling Russia, China and other Iranian allies that it was only prepared to delay, but not give up such an initiative.
The Europeans — backed by the United States — also warned referral opponents that if they did not accept the new offer they would push for an immediate vote on Security Council action, diplomats at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
While the new offer backs off threats of forcing a vote on immediate referral, it would implicitly establish the basis for later council involvement by asking the board to find Iran guilty of “noncompliance” of provisions of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
A previous EU draft resolution — which also remained on the table — calls on the 35 nations of the IAEA board to report Iran to the UN’s highest decision-making body during this session.
The Europeans were keeping both options alive in hopes that even opponents of referral would reluctantly accept the toned-down EU draft over the harsher one demanding immediate action, diplomats familiar with the West’s strategy said.
Beyond establishing the grounds for Security Council action on “noncompliance,” the new EU draft holds out additional threats of future referral. It says the next board meeting will decide on the “the timing and content” of when and what to report about Iran to the Security Council.
Still, it is less direct that the other text, which requests that IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei report to the council “Iran’s many failures and breaches of its obligations to comply” with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It also asks the council to expand the IAEA’s inspection powers in Iran and to request that Tehran resume a recently broken freeze on activities linked to uranium enrichment, which can generate material for energy or create the fissile core of nuclear missiles.
More than a third of IAEA board member nations meeting in Vienna are against Security Council referral.
Neither text calls for Security Council sanctions. A senior diplomat from a nonaligned country opposed to referral said that even the milder draft — with its implicit referral threat and its strong language on Iran’s nuclear program — would likely be unacceptable to Iran IAEA allies.
That draft accuses Iran of “excessive concealment, misleading information and delays” in giving IAEA experts probing its program information and access to nuclear materials as they look for signs that Tehran might be hiding a nuclear weapons program.
A diplomat familiar with US thinking said acceptance of the new draft would suit Washington, which was not interested in a Security Council battle it cannot win against veto-wielding permanent members Russia and China.
Gregory Schulte, the chief US representative to the IAEA, told reporters that while “reporting Iran’s noncompliance to the UN Security Council is long overdue... we support the European Union’s effort to continue to develop the broadest possible consensus.”
China’s is considered immovable in its opposition to referral, but a European official said: “the key is to gain Russia, and we think we can gain Russia at a later date.”
Iran meanwhile, hailed the decision as a “significant victory”.
Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said opposition from China, Russia, India and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) stopped the EU sending Tehran to the United Nations’ highest body for possible sanctions.
“The EU’s withdrawal was a significant victory for Iran,” Saeedi, also a member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, told Reuters from Vienna.
Iranian negotiator Javad Vaeedi said Iran’s strong diplomacy pushed the EU to drop its Security Council push.
“Our firm stance, China and Russia’s backing and also a lack of legal basis caused the EU’s withdrawal,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Vaeedi as telling reporters in Vienna.
“Also, as they were not sure about the outcome of the Security Council, they reviewed their draft,” said Vaeedi, Supreme National Security Council’s deputy in charge of international affairs.
Vaeedi warned the EU against including a so-called “trigger mechanism” in the new draft resolution that would set the stage for a referral to the Security Council if Iran resumed activities linked to uranium enrichment or was found to be hiding any more sites from the IAEA.
“If America and the EU include such mechanism in the IAEA’s resolution, ending snap inspections will be part of our strong reaction,” he said, referring to Iran’s current implementation of a protocol giving UN inspectors greater access to atomic sites.
