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Security Council members differ over Iran
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-06 09:15

The campaign to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon has now moved to the U.N. Security Council, but countries there have vastly different ideas of what the council should do.

The five permanent council members are split, with the United States, Britain and France hoping to pressure Iran into backing down with the ultimate threat of sanctions.

However, China and Russia do not want to incite Tehran and would prefer that the council play a limited role, with the International Atomic Energy Agency keeping the lead in handling Iran.

The Iranian government on Sunday ended all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA, saying it would start uranium enrichment and reject surprise inspections of its facilities. Uranium enriched to a low degree can be used for nuclear reactors, while highly enriched uranium is suitable for warheads.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seen here in January 2006. [AFP/file]

However, in an apparent reversal, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the government was open to negotiations on Moscow's proposal that Iran shift its plan for large-scale enrichment to Russian territory in an effort to allay suspicions. A day earlier, an Iran representative at the IAEA meeting said that proposal was "dead."

For the U.S.-led faction, the IAEA's decision Saturday to report Iran represented a great success. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton had pushed for Iran to be brought before the council since his days as U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security in 2001-2005.

"It inevitably changes the political dynamic when their nuclear weapons program has been considered in the Security Council, which is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security by the U.N. charter, rather than in a specific agency of the U.N. system," Bolton said Friday.

"The Iranians know full well what they're doing, which is trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capability, and I understand why they don't want people talking about it in the full light of day."

In recent days, the diplomatic debate at the United Nations on the issue has focused on two words — "reporting" Iran to the council or "referring" it.

The distinction reflects a fundamental difference in view. The Russians and Chinese do not mind if the council is informed of the IAEA's dealings with Iran, but they do not want the IAEA to "refer" Iran to the council. That, they believe, would give the impression that the IAEA was washing its hands of Iran and asking the council to take the lead.

"We and China can accept informing of the Security Council, which is quite normal," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov said. "That is the right of the Security Council to get any information it needs. But not referral, not official submitting, not handing it to the Security Council."

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