Divided UN council in wait-and-see mode on Iran

Wed Apr 12, 7:02 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran's declaration that it enriched its first batch of uranium is unlikely to spur a divided U.N. Security Council to take any substantive action sooner than May on the question of Iran's nuclear ambitions, council diplomats said on Wednesday.

But the envoys said they could not rule out the possibility of a new informal statement in the next few days expressing the 15-nation body's shared concern over the Iranian announcement.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the council, which last month called on Tehran to suspend all enrichment work, should take "strong steps" when it meets again.

But several council members said the U.N. body had agreed in a statement last month to put off any further substantive steps until after International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei delivers his report on Iranian compliance at the end of April.

"When we have this report, we will react," French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere told reporters.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said after a meeting of the council's permanent members -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France -- that all five took seriously the Iranian step.

But "the question of what precisely we can do is something we've got to consult with our capitals about," he said.

Each of the five has already publicly expressed concern, and one suggestion was to weave all those public declarations into a single statement, diplomats said. But there would be no substantive steps for now, they said.

If ElBaradei reports at the end of the month that Iran has not complied with council demands, Western powers have made clear they want the council to make its demands for suspension of all enrichment work binding under international law, by reissuing them under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

RUSSIA, CHINA HESITANT

Last month's council statement was nonbinding. Russia and China have so far opposed mandatory demands, fearing this could later lead to sanctions or a legal basis for military action.

Following Tuesday's announcement by Iran, Russia and China said they were still not convinced it was time for the council to step up the pressure on Tehran.

"I think people are still talking about diplomatic efforts," Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said. Talk of sanctions or military steps "will not be helpful under the current circumstances," he said.

Russian Ambassador Andrei Denisov said Moscow wanted to see ElBaradei's report before deciding.

A senior State Department official said a Chapter 7 resolution was the "logical next step" in Washington's view.

But he also said European Union member nations, as well as other countries, could take unilateral actions against Iran if the Security Council cannot agree on such a step.

Wang stressed it remained Beijing's view that diplomacy was the best way forward and said the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany planned to meet next week in Moscow "to discuss and take note of the situation."

Senior officials from these six nations have met in recent months in search of a coordinated strategy on Iran, with mixed success.

The Moscow meeting would take place alongside a previously arranged meeting of countries from the Group of Eight, to which China does not belong, diplomats said.

Iran would be high on the agenda of the G8 meeting as well, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. G8 members are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

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