Iran Willing To Talk About Nuke Plans
Iran said Sunday that it was still willing to negotiate with the international community over its nuclear program and dismissed its referral by the U.N. nuclear watchdog to the Security Council.
However, Iran announced it will end all voluntary cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The door for negotiations is still open," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a morning press conference. "We don't fear the Security Council. It's not the end of the world."
Iran said it will hold talks with Moscow on a proposal to enrich uranium in Russia, a day after a senior Iranian official had declared the proposal dead.
"The situation has changed. Still, we will attend talks with Russia on February 16," Asefi said.
Yet at a conference of defense officials in Munich, Germany, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said, "We've always said we're against any country in the world to develop nuclear weapons. We're sticking to that."
On Saturday, Javad Vaeidi, deputy head of the powerful National Security Council, declared the Russian proposal dead after the U.N. nuclear watchdog reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council.
"The proposal has to conform itself with the new circumstances," Asefi said Sunday.
"The Iranian government is ratcheting up the rhetoric, but the reversal on the Russian proposal is a crack in the armor," said CBS News Foreign Affairs analyst Pamela Falk. "Diplomacy is the art of giving face-saving solution to all parties and the month delay may help find a solution to the standoff."
The International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council on Saturday over fears it wants to produce nuclear arms. Iran responded by saying it would no longer allow intrusive IAEA inspections of its facilities and restart full-scale work on uranium enrichment.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad mocked the IAEA referral.
"Issue as many resolutions like this as you want and make yourself happy. You can't prevent the progress of the Iranian nation," he said in comments carried by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
"In the name of the IAEA they want to visit all our nuclear facilities and learn our defense capabilities, but we won't allow them to do this," Ahmadinejad said.
In the past, Iran had allowed short-notice, intrusive inspections of its facilities, including military sites.
But parliament passed a law late last year requiring the government to block intrusive inspections of Iran's facilities if the country is put before the Security Council. It also required the government to resume all suspended nuclear activities, chief among them, uranium enrichment.
Asefi reiterated that Iran would cooperate with the IAEA within the framework of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the Safeguard Agreement.
"We chose our way wisely. We have solutions for all situations that may develop. Referring Iran to the Security Council will definitely harm the other party more than Iran," Asefi said.
The IAEA's decision sets the stage for future action by the top U.N. body that could include economic and political sanctions.
CBS News Correspondent Sheila MacVicar answers questions about the escalating tensions with Iran over its nuclear intentions.
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, Ahmadinejad 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," Ahmadinejad said in a letter addressed to Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also is head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
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."