Iran Gets Reprieve On Nukes

The European Union offered Thursday to give up its push for immediate referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council — but said it could revive that option if delegates at an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting reject the new initiative.

The new U.S.-backed European offer was contained in a text that backs off threats of immediate referral by only implicitly warning Tehran of referral at a later date. The previous EU draft resolution — which diplomats said also remained on the table — called on the 35 nations on the IAEA board to report Iran to the U.N.'s highest decision-making body during the current session.

Diplomats familiar with the West's strategy said the Europeans were keeping both options alive, urging the more than dozen board members opposed to referral to accept the toned-down version or to face the prospect of having the board vote on the earlier hard-line text.

While not directly asking for Security Council referral, the new text finds Iran in noncompliance of commitments to the IAEA that would normally warrant such action.

And it holds out the threat of future referral, saying the next board meeting "will address the timing and content" of a new IAEA report on Iran's nuclear activities to see if it gives reason to decide Iran is still violating agency rules that mandate hauling violators before the council.

The earlier draft requests directly that IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei report to the Security Council "Iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations to comply" with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The draft also asks the council to expand the IAEA's inspection powers in Iran and to request that Tehran resume a recently broken freeze on activities linked to uranium enrichment, a process that can lead to the making of nuclear weapons.

The decision to offer a toned-down text delaying any decision on referral to a later board meeting appeared driven by concerns about strong opposition. More than a dozen of the 35 IAEA board member nations meeting in Vienna, including Security Council members Russia and China, are against the idea.

Still, a senior diplomat from a nonaligned country opposed to referral said the new draft — and its strong language on Iran's nuclear program — would likely be unacceptable to many who opposed the earlier version.

It accuses Iran of "excessive concealment, misleading information and delays" in giving IAEA experts probing its program information and access to nuclear materials as they look for signs that Tehran's might be hiding a nuclear weapons program.

It expresses serious concern that Iran has failed to "re-establish full suspension of all enrichment-related activities," an allusion to international concerns about Tehran's resumption last month of uranium conversion, a precursor to uranium enrichment.

It also would ask the board to accept that Iran is in "noncompliance" of its IAEA obligations. Noncompliance is a formal trigger for referral and board approval of that wording this time would help supporters of referral in any later attempt to push for Security Council involvement.

The draft is formally a European Union initiative but is being orchestrated in close consultation with Washington and backed by Australia, Japan, Canada and others.

A diplomat familiar with U.S. thinking said acceptance of the new draft would suit Washington, which was not interested in a Security Council battle it cannot win against veto-wielding permanent members Russia and China.

Like the earlier draft, the new EU text avoids any mention of U.N. sanctions in recognition that Russia and China would veto such a push, diplomats said.

"Our goal is to build the broadest possible consensus," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Wednesday.

The threat is not being withdrawn. "It is a question of not if, but when" the contentious issue will go to the council, he said.

Even so, Iran's reprieve is at least a temporary setback for U.S. diplomacy.

Two weeks ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice publicly urged Russia, China, India and other countries to join in a ``unified message'' to Iran to halt its program.

But Russia and China demurred, and India did not seem taken with the idea of going to the council either.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said President Bush believes Iran must return to the negotiating table with the Europeans.

"We've expressed our concerns about Iran's behavior," McClellan said. "They have a long history of deceiving the international community, of not abiding by their international obligations, and that's why we remain concerned about their true intentions."

A European official who requested anonymity as a condition for discussing EU strategy said: "the key is to gain Russia, and we think we can gain Russia at a later date."

In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the U.S. and European Security Council initiative as counterproductive.

But Iran insists its nuclear activities have not violated the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and has warned that if referred to the Security Council, it could start uranium enrichment. It also said it could stop allowing unfettered IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities and programs if the agency's board involves the Security Council.