Would you believe it, some good news. From the New York Times:
The United States and Europe, after hours of negotiations on Iran, won support from Russia and China early Tuesday to refer Iran’s nuclear activities to the United Nations Security Council this week, but with a promise that the Council would not act on the question for at least a month.
“This is certainly the most decisive action taken on Iran by the international community in years,” a senior State Department official said at a briefing. “This is a clear signal that the international community are saying, ‘Enough.’ ” The State Department official said the decision was significant because it was the first time Russia and China had joined in formally demanding that Iran step back from the crisis it helped provoke.
The compromise worked out on Monday night and Tuesday morning, at the home of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, was that Iran would indeed be referred — the word used was “reported” —reflecting an actual transfer of its dossier, but that the Council would not act until an atomic energy agency meeting in March.
The compromise on the technical question of an informational report versus a formal referral, hammered out over dinner at Mr. Straw’s house, appeared to mean that Russia and China would not simply let the international atomic agency act, but also possibly vote in favor of it rather than abstain. A “yes” vote by them was the “clear implication” of the statement their foreign ministers signed, the American official said. [emphasis added]
A statement this morning by the top foreign officials of China, Russia, the United States and leading European countries also called on Iran to restore the suspension of all uranium enrichment, including activities restarted this month, when it broke internationally monitored seals at a plant in Natanz.
See, also, the Washington Post.
UPDATE 1: Iran responded this morning by warning that such a referral had no legal basis. Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, said that Tehran would not bow to Western pressure to halt nuclear research. Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Iran had no intention of backing down. “Research and development is the Iranian nation’s legitimate right and is irreversible,” he told state television.
UPDATE 2: Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also runs Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said it was difficult to predict how the IAEA meeting on Thursday would develop, the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency reported. “The biggest problem for the West is that they can’t find any (legal) justification to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council,” ISNA quoted him as
saying.
UPDATE 3: Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said Tuesday that hauling his country before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear ambitions would mean the ‘’end of diplomacy.’’
