Governors of the UN nuclear watchdog broadly agree it is better to explore a Russian compromise over Iran's nuclear activities than to report Tehran to the Security Council, Western board members said today.
A draft statement incorporating this position was submitted by the European Union's three biggest powers -- France, Britain and Germany, or "EU3" -- to the chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board as it began a two-day meeting.
"There is a broad consensus not to allow Iran in the present circumstances conducting (sic) enrichment-related activities on its soil," said the draft text, obtained by Reuters, to be read by the IAEA board chairman at the end of the meeting.
The EU draft text made no mention of previous threats to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions over suspicions that the Islamic republic seeks nuclear weapons, a move the United States and EU had been seeking for months.
Tehran denies wanting anything more than civilian nuclear energy. But it acknowledges hiding potentially weapons-related technology from UN inspectors for 18 years until 2003.
Diplomats said a decision by the EU and the United States not to push for referral at the meeting had averted a potential clash with Russia and China, which oppose such a move.
Rarely united previously, they and the Western powers, along with developing countries such as India and South Africa, now seem to agree Russia's proposal offers the best route forward.
Moscow has suggested letting Tehran perform less-sensitive uranium processing in Iran and send the converted material to Russia, where a Russian-Iranian joint venture would handle the critical enrichment process. Enrichment can yield fuel for nuclear power stations or bomb-grade uranium fuel.
Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Iran had not yet received any official proposal from either Russia or the European Union.
"However, Iran welcomes any proposal that acknowledges its right to have access to peaceful nuclear technology including the fuel cycle, that does not deprive Iran of any of the nuclear fuel cycle stages, and that guarantees domestic and foreign participation in the production of the nuclear fuel technology," he told the official IRNA news agency in Vienna.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said enrichment would be the main topic of any future discussions with the Europeans and Russia.