EU: European powers have begun circulating a draft resolution which asks the UN nuclear watchdog to report Iran to the Security Council, drawing a scornful response from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will hold an emergency meeting on Iran's nuclear work on February 2nd at the request of the EU powers, an IAEA spokesman said yesterday.
France, Britain, Germany and the US are expected to push to have Tehran referred to the UN Security Council after it resumed research that could be used for generating electricity or making atomic bombs.
"It is clear this is politically motivated," the Iranian president said when asked about the text. "We are asking them to step down from their ivory towers and act with a little logic."
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said nuclear weapons were against Islamic teachings as well as Iranian interests, but he vowed to pursue atomic energy.
The US and EU said they saw no point in holding further talks with Iran and it was time for the Security Council to tackle the issue, ratcheting up diplomatic pressure on Tehran and opening the door to eventual sanctions.
Iran wrote to the IAEA on Tuesday proposing more talks with the Europeans, who called off the negotiations last week after Tehran removed UN seals on uranium enrichment equipment.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the EU had made clear that Iran had crossed an important threshold. "Iran must not be allowed to pursue activities that might lead to a nuclear weapon and on that we are fully united," she said.
Previous EU predictions that the IAEA would send the draft to the Security Council as soon as early next month were "looking a bit sick", a top EU diplomat said.
The diplomat said Russia wanted the IAEA to inform the council about the Iran issue, but in some way that stops short of a formal referral.
US and European officials want as much support as they can muster for a referral from countries such as Russia, China and other sceptics.