Iran Defiant After U.N. Referral
The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency on Saturday reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council, expressing concern that Tehran's nuclear program may not be "exclusively for peaceful purposes."
The decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board sets the stage for future action by the top U.N. body that could include economic and political sanctions.
In a statement Saturday, President Bush said that the vote "sends a clear message to the regime in Iran that the world will not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons."
He also said that the vote by the IAEA Board was not the end of diplomatic efforts or the IAEA's involvement. "Instead, it is the beginning of an intensified diplomatic effort to prevent the Iranian regime from developing nuclear weapons. We will continue working with our international partners to achieve that common objective."
In response to the vote, Iran's president ordered the resumption of uranium enrichment and an end to snap inspections of its facilities.
"As of Sunday, the voluntary implementation of the additional protocol and other cooperation beyond the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty has to be suspended under the law," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a letter addressed to Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also is head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
CBS News Correspondent Sheila MacVicar answers questions about the escalating tensions with Iran over its nuclear intentions.
In addition, Iran also declared that a proposal by Moscow to enrich Iranian uranium in Russia was dead.
Javad Vaeidi, deputy head of Iran's powerful National Security Council, said there was no "adequate reason to pursue the Russian plan."
"Commercial scale uranium enrichment will be resumed in Natanz in accordance with the law passed by the parliament," Vaeidi told state television in a telephone interview from Vienna, Austria. Natanz is Iran's main enrichment plant.
The Russian government had proposed that Iran shift its plan for large-scale enrichment of uranium to Russian territory to allay world suspicions that Iran might use the process to develop a nuclear bomb.
Uranium enriched to a low degree is used as fuel for nuclear reactors. But highly enriched uranium is suitable for making atomic bombs.
Any further action by the Security Council was weeks if not months away, with two permanent council members, Russia and China, agreeing to referral only on condition that no council action be taken until at least March.
The European resolution calling for referral was backed by 27 nations at the meeting.
Only three nations, Cuba, Syria and Venezuela, voted against. Five others, Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya and South Africa, abstained.
Among those backing referral was India, a nation with great weight in the developing world whose stance on referral was unclear until the vote.
"When the U.N. takes up the Iran issue in March, the Security Council has several options," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N., "it can mandate targeted or broad economic or political sanctions, or it can authorize military force, but anything more than a warning is likely to be vetoed by Russia and China. "
During a speech in Germany Saturday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged the world to work for a "diplomatic solution" to halt the nuclear program of Iran, a nation he called the "leading state sponsor of terrorism."
Iran has insisted it wants to enrich uranium only to make nuclear fuel.
However, after Tehran took IAEA seals off enrichment equipment Jan. 10 and declared it would resume small-scale activities, it inflamed fears that it had other intentions for the technology and triggered the chain of events that led to Saturday's Security Council referral.
The resolution requests IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to "report to the Security Council" steps Iran needs to take to dispel suspicions about its nuclear ambitions.
The resolution calls on Iran to re-establish the freeze on uranium enrichment; consider stopping construction of a heavy-water reactor that could be the source of plutonium; formally ratify an agreement allowing the IAEA greater inspecting authority; and give the nuclear watchdog more power in its investigation of Iran's nuclear program.
The draft also asks ElBaradei to "convey to the Security Council" his report to the next board session in March along with any resolution that meeting might approve.
Chief British IAEA delegate Peter Jenkins urged Iran to heed the resolution before March. "Should Iran fail to comply, it will fall to the Security Council to bring additional pressure to bear," he said.
His American counterpart, Gregory L. Schulte, indirectly acknowledged that the Security Council's hands were tied until at least March, saying, "We're not talking about sanctions at this stage."
Agreement on the final wording of the text was achieved only overnight after Washington compromised on a dispute with Egypt over linking fears about Tehran's atomic program to a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction, an indirect reference to Israel.
The wording of the final resolution recognized "that a solution to the Iranian issue would contribute to global nonproliferation efforts and the objective of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, including their means of delivery."
A Western diplomat at the meeting said the United States felt strongly about not linking its ally Israel to nuclear concerns in the Middle East when it considers Iran the real threat in the region. But the Americans agreed in the face of overwhelming support for inclusion of such a clause from its European allies spearheading the resolution.
Egypt, whose support of the resolution is key to swaying other Arab board members to join in backing it, was looking to make the linkage to satisfy broad domestic concerns, a senior European diplomat said.
Even before Saturday's vote, diplomats said support for Iran had shrunk among board members since Russia and China swung their support behind referral at a meeting with the United States, France and Britain, the other three permanent council members, earlier in the week.
Rumsfeld painted a stark picture of a lengthy war against terrorism that lies ahead, appealing to allies to show unity and increase military spending to defeat the threat of a "global extremist Islamic empire."
Rumsfeld said terrorists hope to use Iraq as the "central front" in their war, turning it into a training and recruitment area like they had done in Afghanistan under the Taliban. He warned "a war has been declared on all of our nations" and said their "futures depend on determination and unity in the face of the terrorist threat."
"We could choose to pretend, as some suggest, that the enemy is not at our doorstep. We could choose to believe, as some contend, that the threat is exaggerated.
"But those who would follow such a course must ask: what if they are wrong? What if at this moment, the enemy is counting on being underestimated, counting on being dismissed, and counting on our preoccupation," Rumsfeld said.
But, he pointed out that the U.S. spends 3.7 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on national defense while 19 of the 25 other NATO nations spend less than 2 percent of their GDP on defense.
He did not name countries, but Germany, which spends 1.4 percent of its GDP on defense, and others have been under pressure to step up their funding.
"It may be easier for all of us to use our scarce tax dollars to meet urgent needs we all have at home," Rumsfeld said. "But unless we invest in our defense and security, our homelands will be at risk."