Nations Agree To Iran U.N. Referral

Tehran Says Move Will Mean 'End Of Diplomacy' Over Nuclear Program

(CBS/AP) 
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, reproached Europe for the London decision and repeated that Tehran will resume suspended nuclear activities and bar surprise U.N. inspections of facilities if it is referred to the Security Council.

"In case of referral ..., we have to stop all nuclear work that has been voluntarily suspended and stop implementation of the Additional Protocol," Larijani told reporters.

Uranium enrichment is the chief activity that Iran has suspended, but Larijani stopped short of specifying a resumption of enrichment.

Under the protocols, Iran agreed to allow IAEA inspectors to carry out surprise inspections of its nuclear sites with as little as two hours' notice. The deal also lets them inspect sites Iran has not officially declared as nuclear facilities — such as the Parchin military base outside of Tehran that inspectors visited in October, suspecting that nuclear activity was taking place there.

Iran's parliament passed a law last year requiring the government to block intrusive inspections of Iran's facilities if the IAEA refers the Iranian program to the Security Council.

The law also requires Iran to resume all nuclear activities it had stopped voluntarily, foremost among them enriching uranium.

Iran insists it has the right as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to build nuclear power stations and produce fuel by enriching its own uranium. But the United States and Europe suspect Iran aims to use enrichment to produce nuclear weapons, an accusation Iran denies.

Earlier, state television reported that Larijani said referral to the Security Council will be "unconstructive and the end of diplomacy."

"Europeans should pay more attention. Iran has called for dialogue and is moving in the direction of reaching an agreement through peaceful means," he said. "The Islamic Republic of Iran doesn't welcome this. We still think that this issue can be resolved peacefully. We recommend them not to do it."

But French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said the international community could reverse course if Tehran cooperates. "For us, the diplomatic path is not closed," Mattei said.

Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also runs Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said there was no "legal justification to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council," according to the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency.

In Vienna, Iran's oil minister said the nuclear issue would not affect Iranian oil policy.

"We have no reason to stop our exports" because of the nuclear issue, Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said before Tuesday's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, where members agreed to hold crude-oil production steady at 28 million barrels a day. "From our point of view there's no link between the two."

British, French and German representatives met Larijani's deputy, Javad Vaedi, in Brussels on Tuesday for talks on the dispute but failed to make any progress.

The decision by Russia and China to vote for referral surprised observers as they have consistently counseled caution on Iran's nuclear file. Both have major economic ties with Iran.

In an apparent attempt to reassure Tehran, Russia underlined that referral to the Security Council will not mean immediate action.

"The Security Council will not make any decisions," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Moscow is trying to prevent the referral from scuttling negotiations that it hopes will persuade Iran to accept a compromise proposal, that Iranian uranium enrichment take place on Russian territory.