Iran Sticks To Hard Line On Nukes

(CBS/AP)  Iran threatened on Friday to block inspections of its nuclear sites if the U.N. Security Council confronts it over its nuclear activities.

Germany, Britain and France said Thursday that nuclear talks with Iran had reached a dead end after more than two years of acrimonious negotiations and the issue should be referred to the Security Council.

However, the Europeans held back from calling on the 15-nation council to impose sanctions and said they remained open to more talks.

So did China.

"We want a solution but to refer it might complicate the issue," United Nations ambassador Wang Guangya said. "This is our concern."

President Bush, after meeting Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, again pushed for the Security Council to take up the issue, although he stopped short of saying what kind of action should be taken, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller (audio).

Both leaders made it clear that it would be unacceptable if Iran were to develop nuclear weapons "and the reason it's unacceptable is because Iran armed with a nuclear weapon poses a grave threat to the security of the world," Mr. Bush said.

"We will not be intimidated by a country such as Iran," said Merkel.

France said Friday that it favors a step-by-step approach with Iran over its nuclear program and that any sanctions request at this stage would be premature.

"We, like our partners, like the British and the Germans, consider that this co-request for sanctions is premature for the moment," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.

Iran said that if it were confronted by the council, it would be obliged to stop cooperating with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That would be, among other things, the end of random inspections, said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

"In case Iran is referred to the U.N. Security Council ... the government will be obliged to end all of its voluntary cooperation," the television quoted Mottaki as saying.

Iran has been voluntarily allowing short-notice IAEA inspections since 2003. But last year it adopted a law requiring the government to block intrusive inspections of Iran's facilities if the IAEA refers the Iranian program to the council.

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