Iran defies UN Security Council deadline
Iran defied a UN deadline tonight to stop enriching uranium, clearing the path for Security Council sanctions sparked by concerns that Tehran might be seeking to build nuclear weapons.
Iran’s hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, lashed out at the US, calling it “tyrannical” and insisting Tehran would not be “bullied”.
And other Iranian officials said the country could withstand any punishment the UN Security Council might impose.
But US President George Bush called for “consequences to Iran’s defiance”, saying the “world now faces a grave threat from the radical regime in Iran”.
“We must not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon,” Bush said in a speech in Salt Lake City. He said Washington hoped for a diplomatic solution, but insisted “it is time for Iran to make a choice” whether to cooperate with the UN.
Midnight Thursday in Austria – the last day of the Security Council deadline - passed with no change in the Iranian position.
The formal trigger for possible UN sanctions was provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency with a report issued earlier in the day in Vienna on Iran’s compliance.
The report confirmed Tehran has not halted uranium enrichment, and that three years of IAEA probing had been unable to confirm “the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme” because of lack of cooperation from Tehran.
The council had set the deadline on July 31 and had asked the agency to report on Tehran’s compliance, dangling the threat of sanctions if Iran defied its will.
Still, with permanent council members Russia and China opposed to quick and harsh penalties, the council tonight appeared ready to delay such action.
Senior UN diplomats said Iran had agreed to meet European negotiators to try and find a compromise.
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the Security Council would wait to take any action until top EU envoy Javier Solana meets Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, in the middle of next week.
An official from one of the five permanent Security Council nations said the meeting was tentatively set for Tuesday in Berlin, with the senior officials from the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany convening in the German capital on the following day to plan Iran strategy.
Those six nations offered rewards to Iran in July if it gave up enrichment - but warned of UN sanctions if it didn’t.
Iran says it wants to develop a full-scale enrichment program to generate electricity, but there is growing suspicion the oil-rich country wants to misuse enrichment to create fissile material for nuclear warheads.
While it is far away from its goal it wants to build tens of thousands of centrifuges which – if Tehran chooses – could provide fissile material for a full-scale nuclear weapons programme.
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