IRAN: Russian and Chinese officials flew to Tehran last night to try to defuse the burgeoning nuclear crisis after agreement was finally reached on sending Iran to the UN security council.
The officials are to meet their Iranian counterparts today to try to persuade the Iranians to climb down over their insistence on developing their nuclear programme.
The US, Britain, France and Germany achieved a breakthrough in London in the early hours of yesterday in securing for the first time Russian and Chinese agreement to report Iran to the security council.
In return, as a compromise, the US, Britain and France had to accept a Russian request to postpone any action by the council for a month. Iranian diplomats have worked for three years, with support from Russia and China, to avoid referral to the council.
British prime minister Tony Blair said he hoped the decision would send "a message that the international community is united". He described it as "a very important step".
The decision of the five permanent security council members, plus Germany, makes an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) tomorrow to discuss referral a formality.
The director of the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, will present a five-page brief to the 35 members of the IAEA board on his inspectors' findings on Iran, while Britain, France and Germany circulate a resolution ordering the dispute sent to New York.
"It's a fait accompli, the security council," said a diplomat familiar with the discussions. "It's also symbolic, poking a stick in Iran's eye."
The IAEA official in charge of the nuclear inspections, Olli Heinonen, of Finland, has just returned from Iran. The Iranians appear to have made last-minute tactical concessions to the IAEA in what now looks like a futile attempt to avoid being sent to the security council. The Iranians provided documents, discovered last year, apparently relating to engineering details on aspects of nuclear warheads.
They also allowed access to and environmental sampling at a doctored military site the UN inspectors have been demanding to visit for more than a year.
"It's still not complete disclosure," said the diplomat.
Tehran reacted furiously to the agreement in London. Ali Larijani, Iran's senior nuclear negotiator, said: "Reporting Iran's dossier to the UN security council will be unconstructive and the end of diplomacy." He added: "The Islamic Republic of Iran doesn't welcome this. We still think that this issue can be resolved peacefully."
Russia and China, with big economic assets at stake in Iran, have been reluctant to resort to the security council, but came under strong pressure at the London meetings. There was no decision in London on what kind of action the security council might take.
Russia has carved out a role for itself as a mediator between Iran and the west and is keen to fashion a settlement. The Russians wrested another concession from the US, France, Britain and Germany in the London talks, changing "referral" of Iran to the security council to "reporting", which means that in theory the IAEA will continue to take a lead on the issue.
The main problem is Iran's recent decision to resume uranium enrichment activities after a two-year freeze. While it is entitled to do so under international treaties and insists its aims are entirely peaceful, the west fears that it will furnish the knowhow needed to manufacture bomb-grade uranium.
- (Guardian Service)