U.S., E.U. won't seek immediate Security Council referral of Iran

Nov 22, 2005, 0:45 GMT

Vienna - The United States and European Union do not plan to push the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to refer Iran's activities to the U.N. Security Council during a meeting this week, diplomats said Monday.

Instead, Washington and Brussels want to give more time to a Russian initiative that would require the enrichment of uranium for Iran's nuclear progamme to take place in Russia.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) governing board begins meeting Thursday in Vienna. The board last met in September and passed a toughly worded resolution saying that Iran had failed to meet its obligations to come clean on its nuclear ambitions.

The United States accuses Iran of using a civilian energy programme to develop nuclear weapons - charges that Iran denies.

Britain, France and Germany, known as the E.U.-3, had been conducting negotiations with Iran, which has refused since August to continue talks despite international pressure.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that the United States still believes the dispute should be brought before the Security Council, and that there is enough support on the IAEA's Board of Governors to make the referral.

'We believe that, given Iran's past behaviour, that it should be referred to the Security Council,' he said. 'But we will reserve the right to seek that action at the time of our choosing.'

'At this point, we're going to wait to see how the diplomacy unfolds over the next several days,' he said.

On the IAEA board, Russia and China have resisted U.S. efforts to introduce stronger measures against Iran.

U.S. President George W. Bush has called the Russian proposal 'interesting' and worth pursuing, as he persists with a diplomatic solution without removing the option of military action from the table.

The United States supports but has not participated in the E.U.-3 negotiations with Iran.

Commenting on the Iranian parliament's weekend approval of a draft bill urging the government to suspend the IAEA additional protocol, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in Brussels that Iran had 'clear obligations' to comply with the demands.

Meanwhile, a leading Iranian dissident who in the past has revealed details of Iranian nuclear activities from unnamed sources in the country, said Monday that Teheran was using a vast array of tunnels to house the construction of missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The underground facilities lie east of Teheran and were constructed with the help of the North Koreans, Alireza Jafarzaheh told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington.

'Such underground facilities are extremely crucial now, because Iran is now working on a programme to produce a capable nuclear missile,' said Jafarzaheh, a spokesman for the National Council of the Resistance of Iran.