Iran: No Room For U.S. Nuke Talks

Iran said Monday there is no room for negotiation with the United States over its nuclear program after it was reported by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog to the U.N. Security Council.

"Our policy is the same toward the United States that it has so far been. There is no debate about relations and negotiation with the U.S. There has been no change in our policy," said Gholamhossein Elham, spokesman of Iran's government, when he was asked if the country was ready to negotiate with Washington.

Elham said the West made "a big mistake" by making the referral, because he contended the action indicated the West's opposition to Iran's development.

Iran also told the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove surveillance cameras and agency seals from sites and nuclear equipment, the U.N. watchdog agency said Monday.

In a confidential report (made available to the Associated Press) to the IAEA's 35-member board, agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran also announced a sharp reduction in the number and kind of inspections IAEA experts will be allowed, effective immediately.

Iran said Sunday that it had ended all voluntary cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, saying it would start uranium enrichment and bar surprise inspections of its facilities, CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports.

The decision came a day after the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, lobbied by the U.S., voted to report Iran to the Security Council over fears that it is seeking an atomic bomb. The Security Council has the power to impose economic and political sanctions, but it is considered unlikely it will do so.

"I think moving toward an international response is the right approach," Senator Dick Durban, D.-Ill, tells CBS' The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "But it's a test for the United Nations. Can the United Nations rise to the occasion? We have to take this extremely seriously."

But Senator Chuck Grassley, R.-Ill., doubts the United Nations will act decisively. "(The U.N.) surely fell through in regard to sanctions on Saddam Hussein and kept him in power," Grassley tells The Early Show. "The rule of law in international affairs must be respected, and it wasn't respected by Iraq and we found out what happened. We don't want the same mistake in Iran."

In Moscow, meanwhile, a top Russian diplomat said Monday it would be possible to create a joint venture to enrich uranium for Iran in Russia only if Tehran resumed its moratorium on enrichment activities, the Interfax news agency reported.

"Our proposal on creating a joint enterprise remains in force," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak was quoted as saying. "Its fulfillment is possible if Iran returns to the moratorium, as is set out in the resolution adopted by the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency."

Russian on Monday also warned the international community against threatening Iran over its nuclear program.

"I think that at the current stage, it is important not to make guesses about what will happen and even more important not to make threats," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Athens, Greece. His comments were in response to a request for his reaction to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's reported statement that a military option for dealing with Tehran should be kept open. Rumsfeld's remarks were published in a German newspaper interview.

Lavrov said that the use of force would be possible only on the basis of the United Nations Charter, Interfax reported.

Iran has said it was willing to discuss Moscow's proposal to shift large-scale enrichment operations to Russian territory in an effort to allay suspicions it is pursuing a weapons program. Talks on the project were scheduled for Feb. 16 in Moscow.

But Elham also insisted Monday on Iran's right to have uranium enrichment on its soil. He reiterated that the "door of negotiation" is open.

Uranium enriched to a low degree can be used for nuclear reactors, while highly enriched uranium is suitable for warheads. Iran insists it only wants to generate electricity, but the United States and some of its allies contend Tehran is trying to build a weapon.

Meanwhile Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said the West was using the referral to the Security Council as a "psychological operation against Iran," the official IRNA news agency reported.