EU slows down drive to refer Iran to Security Council

A previous draft had called for reporting Tehran to the UN top decision-making body.

The decision to tone down the text and indirectly delay the issue to a later board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency – instead of demanding a vote on referral this week – appeared driven by concerns about strong opposition. More than a dozen of the 35 IAEA board member nations meeting in Vienna, including Security Council members Russia and China, are against the idea.

The new draft, however, was still expected to run into opposition because of its strong language.

It accuses Iran of “excessive concealment, misleading information and delays” in giving IAEA experts probing its programme information and access to nuclear materials as they look for signs that Tehran’s might be hiding a nuclear weapons programme.

It expresses serious concern that Iran has failed to “re-establish full suspension of all enrichment-related activities,” an allusion to international concerns that over last month’s resumption by Tehran of uranium conversion – a prelude to enrichment, which in turn is a possible pathway to nuclear arms.

While not directly asking for Security Council referral, the text finds Iran in non-compliance of commitments to the IAEA that would normally warrant such action. And it holds out the threat of future referral, saying that the next board meeting “will address the timing and content” of a new IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear activities to see if it gives reason to decide that Iran is violating agency rules that mandate hauling such IAEA members before the council.

The draft is formally a European Union initiative but is being orchestrated in close consultation with the USA and backed by Australia, Japan, Canada and others.

A diplomat familiar with US thinking said the decision to postpone referral suited Washington, which was not interested in a Security Council battle it could not win against veto-wielding permanent members Russia and China – a view indirectly confirmed from Washington.

“Our goal is to build the broadest possible consensus,” US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

The threat of referral is not being withdrawn. “It is a question of not if, but when” the contentious issue will go to the council, Ereli said.

A European official, who requested anonymity, said “the key is to gain Russia, and we think we can gain Russia at a later date".

In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the US and European Security Council initiative as counterproductive, saying it “will not contribute to the search for a solution to the Iranian problem through political and diplomatic means".

Like the earlier draft, the new EU text avoids any mention of UN sanctions in recognition that Russia and China would veto such a push, diplomats said.

Washington insists Iran has breached the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

But Iran insists its nuclear activities have not violated the treaty, and has warned that if referred to the Security Council, it could start uranium enrichment – a possible step toward making nuclear arms. It also said it could stop allowing unfettered IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities and programmes if the agency’s board involves the Security Council.