Differences between the West and Russia and China were exposed yesterday during a meeting in London to discuss strategy for tackling the crisis over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme.
Following seven hours of talks, Britain, France and Germany announced that they were to seek Iran's referral to the Security Council at a meeting on February 2nd and 3rd of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign affairs chief, said he was "confident" that Russia and China would back the referral.
But both countries expressed serious reservations about future handling of the crisis, in particular the prospect of the Security Council imposing sanctions on Iran.
Russia, although slowly shifting towards the West's position, is still holding out hope that Tehran may accept a compromise. China, which has close economic ties with Iran, is the most hardline in opposing tough action against Tehran.
One European diplomat said: "What is really crucial is support from Russia and China. China does not look too good. China is the major obstacle."
He added that China, which has a veto on the Security Council, felt squeezed between pressure from the West and dependency on Iranian oil.
A British diplomat said: "There was serious concern about Iranian moves to restart enrichment-related activities contrary to the appeals of the international community not to do so." He added that there had been a "thorough exchange of views" on the role of the Security Council.
The crisis escalated last week when Iran broke seals on uranium-enrichment equipment. Iran denies that it has a covert nuclear weapons programme.
The London meeting between senior officials from the US, Britain, France, China and Russia - the five permanent members of the Security Council - plus Germany was held to try to prevent a repetition of the divisions at the UN which marked the run-up to the war in Iraq. The West's fear is that China could exercise its veto on Iran's behalf.
The Europeans have begun drafting a resolution to put before the IAEA. "It's short. It calls for [ agency chief Mohamed] ElBaradei to report Iran to the UN Security Council," one diplomat said.
Western nations have a simple majority in favour of referral and are hoping that Russia and China will back it. The US and Europeans are focusing on Russia in the hope that China will follow suit if Moscow backs their approach.
President Vladimir Putin, after meeting Angela Merkel on her first visit to Moscow as German chancellor, signalled exasperation with Iran's decision to break the seals. Indicating that he was moving towards the West's position, he said: "As for Russia, and Germany, and our European partners and the US, we have very close positions on the Iranian problem."
But he cautioned against "abrupt, erroneous steps" and suggested that the issue could still be defused without reference to the UN. He said that Iran had not excluded the possibility of accepting a Russian compromise in which Tehran would conduct uranium-enrichment in Russia rather than in Iran.
"One of the main problems is the enrichment of uranium. We proposed to our Iranian partners to set up a joint enrichment venture on Russian territory . . . our partners told us they did not exclude the implementation of our proposal."
But China's foreign minister, speaking before the London meeting, said that resorting to the Security Council would "complicate the issue", citing Iran's threat to hit back by halting snap UN inspections at its atomic plants. - (Guardian Service)