Russia Will Not Block Iran Security Council Referral

Russia has said it would not block moves to refer Iran’s nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council, U.S. and European officials said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 11).

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of Moscow’s policy shift during a Tuesday night phone conversation, the Washington Post reported today.

Lavrov said Russia would abstain if a vote is taken by the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors to move the issue to the Security Council, according to three senior diplomats.

Bush administration officials said they would lobby China for a similar commitment.

“We spent much of our time working on the Russians, but we’re now moving the focus to China,” said one administration official.

China and Russia are among the five permanent members that have veto power on Security Council decisions. Despite Moscow’s decision on referral, its potential reaction to efforts by the Security Council to punish Iran remains unclear, U.S. officials told the Post.

The White House is pushing for Security Council referral before President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union address in late February, according to two senior administration officials.

Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday told Fox News Radio that “the No. 1 item on the agenda” at the Security Council would be a “resolution that could be enforced by sanctions.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said sanctions were possible.

“We don’t rule out any measures at all,” Blair said. “It is important Iran recognizes how seriously the international community treats it” (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, Jan. 12).

British, French and German foreign ministers today announced plans for talks next week in London on the Iran nuclear issue involving the United States, Russia, China and the European powers, Reuters reported.

The European Union is expected to abandon its 2 1/2-year diplomatic effort with Iran, according to Reuters.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said it was “highly probable” Iran would be referred to the Security Council (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Jan. 12).

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman today declined to say whether Beijing would support Security Council referral, Agence France-Presse reported.

“We hope that the Iranian side can do more to help build mutual trust and promote the resumption of talks between Iran and the EU countries,” said spokesman Kong Quan.

“We also hope all parties concerned can exercise restraint and seek a solution on the Iranian issue through dialogue,” he said (Agence France-Presse I/al-Jazeera, Jan. 12).

The secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which represents Iran’s Persian Gulf neighbors, said today that Iran’s nuclear plans were alarming, the Associated Press reported.

Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah told the Al-Watan daily that neighboring Arab nations “fear and worry” about Iran’s nuclear plans, particularly potential accidents at atomic facilities (Associated Press I/Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Jan. 12).

A Western diplomat said today that Iran is not yet able to enrich uranium, Reuters reported.

Iran is “probably going to have to rebuild the entire (cascade of enrichment centrifuges). There’s a lot of humidity, corrosion. It’s going to take a long time,” said the diplomat (Reuters, Jan. 12).

Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said yesterday that sanctions would not prevent Iran from resuming sensitive nuclear work, AP reported.

“Even if (the Westerners) destroy our scientists, their successors would continue the job,” he said. “It would not be easy for them to solve the (nuclear) case by imposing sanctions or anything like that” (Associated Press II/USA Today, Jan. 12).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran was not intimidated by international reaction to its resumption of nuclear research, AFP reported.

“I am telling all the powers that the Iranian nation and government, with firmness and wisdom, will continue its path in seeking and utilizing peaceful nuclear energy,” Ahmadinejad said yesterday.

“The Iranian nation is not intimidated by the fuss you have made,” he said (Agence France-Presse II/IranMania.com, Jan. 11).

Former IAEA Deputy Director General Pierre Goldschmidt has called for the Security Council to authorize a three-step program to push Iran to abandon its nuclear program, United Press International reported yesterday.

Goldschmidt, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called for a resolution that would automatically authorize three steps if a state is found in noncompliance by the agency.

First, the council would increase the agency’s inspection authority, he said.

“In particular, the IAEA’s inspectors and experts should have immediate and unfettered ‘access at all times to all places and data and to any person,’” Goldschmidt said.

Second, the state would be requested to conclude a detailed safeguards agreement for all its nuclear facilities within 60 days.

Third, the state “would be suspended ... for a period of 10 years subject to an extension of suspension by the U.N. Security Council by further periods of 10 years,” he said (Martin Sieff, United Press International, Jan. 11).

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