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End of diplomacy - Iran
31/01/2006 16:22 - (SA)
Paul Hughes
Tehran - Iran said on Tuesday a move by the world's top five powers to report it to the United Nations security council would close diplomatic avenues to a solution of its long-running nuclear standoff with the West.
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany and the European Union agreed in London that the UN's nuclear watchdog should report to the council this week on what Iran must do to co-operate with the agency.
Iran reacted angrily to the new pressure and said even reporting its case to the council would kill off diplomatic efforts to resolve the row over a nuclear programme that Tehran says is purely peaceful, not military as the West suspects.
"We consider any referral or report of Iran to the Security Council as the end of diplomacy," Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and its chief nuclear negotiator, told state television.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the agreement to involve the council as a powerful signal to Iran.
"I hope it's sending a message that the international community is united," Blair told Reuters Television.
"This is going to be discussed and decided upon by the UN security council. That is a very important step. We couldn't get agreement on that before, we've got agreement on it now".
However, with Russia and China opposed to hasty action, the agreement delayed any decision on formal referral of Iran to the council, where it could face sanctions, until after a scheduled International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting on March 6.
Iran has warned that any move to inform the council about its case would prompt it to curtail snap UN inspections of nuclear facilities and resume enriching uranium, a process used to make fuel for power stations, or bomb-grade material.
Libyan energy minister Fathi Omar Bin Shatwan said referral of Iran's case to the council would have a serious effect on world oil prices, already just shy of record highs.
But Iran's oil minister Kazem Vaziri eased concerns that the world's fourth biggest crude oil producer could curb oil exports in reprisal, as Tehran has previously hinted it may do.
"We are not mixing oil with politics," he told reporters at the start of an OPEC meeting in Vienna.
British foreign secretary Jack Straw said an extensive period of "confidence-building" was required from Iran.
Iran says its nuclear programme is only for electricity and that it has a right to nuclear technology. It has alarmed the West by restarting nuclear fuel processing and research, which had been suspended for more than two years.
Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Iran had no intention of backing down.
"Research and development is the Iranian nation's legitimate right and is irreversible," he told state television.
- Reuters
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