Iran Nuclear Issue Moves Toward U.N. Blair says Tehran should face the Security Council for restarting uranium research. Europeans are to hold an emergency meeting today. By John Daniszewski January 12, 2006 Los Angeles Times Original Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran12jan12,1,5098312.story LONDON — British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Iran should be brought before the U.N. Security Council for defying the international community and resuming research on enriching uranium, a move some Western leaders fear is a step toward the construction of nuclear weapons. The statement came as the United States and its chief European allies seemed to be moving toward agreement to bring the issue of Iran's nuclear program before the United Nations. Such action would be a departure from the multilateral negotiations that Britain, France and Germany have been conducting with Iran for the last two years. We have to take immediate steps to protect the security of the world, the British leader told Parliament. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said a move to the Security Council was more likely than ever. But in the face of global disapproval, Iran's senior leaders vowed not to be dissuaded by any possible U.N. action in response to its decision Tuesday to break seals placed on its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz two years ago by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Iranian nation will continue its way decisively and wisely to obtain and use nuclear technology for civilian ends and has no fear at all of the fuss created by the big powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. Iran informed the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, that it was resuming the nuclear research, although it said it would continue to allow its activities to be monitored by IAEA personnel. The government insisted that its activities were meant only to further a civilian nuclear power program. Western countries suspect Iran of seeking to master the enrichment process so it can build nuclear weapons. They are particularly concerned because of the recent election of Ahmadinejad, who is vehemently anti-Western and anti-Israel. The Iranian leader has repeatedly questioned Israel's right to exist in the Middle East. IAEA officials were told Iran was preparing a pilot program to use centrifuge cascades to treat uranium gas in a process that could yield small amounts of enriched uranium. Enriched uranium can be used both in nuclear weapons and power plants. Foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, the three European countries that have been conducting talks with Iran on the nuclear issue, planned an emergency meeting today in Berlin with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said referring Iran to the Security Council would be at the top of the agenda. The Bush administration was skeptical about the talks between Iran and the so-called EU-3, preferring a more confrontational approach, but reversed course last year to allow the European talks to play out with U.S. backing. Now that those talks have come to an apparent dead end, the Security Council seems the logical next step, U.S. and European officials said. The decision by Iran is very serious indeed. I don't think there is any point in us hiding our deep dismay at what Iran has decided to do, said Blair, speaking during the prime minister's weekly question session in the House of Commons. When taken in conjunction with their other comments about the state of Israel, they cause real and serious alarm right across the world. Blair said that he was discussing the issue closely with the U.S. and European allies and that referring Iran to the Security Council would be entirely in line with what the [IAEA] itself decided some time ago. In the U.S., Vice President Dick Cheney spoke harshly about the Iranian regime in an interview on Fox News, saying the next step would be to seek Security Council action, a move he said was still speculative because no decision to go to the United Nations had been made. President Bush, speaking in Kentucky, went out of his way to emphasize that the U.S. aimed to use diplomatic, rather than military, means to deal with the Iranian nuclear problem. Obviously, the best way to deal with these kinds of threats is diplomatically. We're doing so in Iran, Bush said. The military option is always the last option. On Tuesday, the IAEA, in its strongest language to date, voiced serious concern about Iran's action. Responding to the criticism from IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei and all five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, Ahmadinejad was adamant during a speech in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, according to news agency reports. He called Iran's critics a group of bullies. Western countries discovered two years ago that Iran had been concealing the acquisition of technology and research for nuclear enrichment for nearly two decades. Iran would have been referred to the Security Council at that time, but in a compromise it agreed to suspend research while negotiating with the European countries about a permanent end to its program in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits. Those talks have not resulted in a solution, and since the election of hard-liner Ahmadinejad as president in June, Iran has been moving with more determination to restart its program to enrich uranium, which it says is within its rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. At the foreign ministers' meeting today, the EU-3 could decide to declare the diplomatic efforts exhausted. That move would open the way for the IAEA governing board to hold a meeting to refer Iran to the Security Council for possible economic sanctions. Experts agree that options are limited. Since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has shown a willingness to pursue its own path despite trade embargoes and diplomatic isolation. Iran tends to regard itself as the key regional power in southwest Asia as well as a global leader of the Islamic world, with a status comparable to that of neighbors such as Israel, Pakistan and India, which have acquired nuclear capabilities. Although Iran disavows any interest in nuclear weapons, its leaders say it has as much right as any other country to acquire civilian nuclear power. It has doggedly continued construction of its first civilian nuclear power plant at Bushehr, scheduled to go online late this year, despite a decade of U.S. and British pressure against it. To the argument often raised by Western officials that oil-rich Iran had no need for nuclear power, Iranian officials reply that it would be beneficial to the economy because it would free up more oil and gas resources for hard-currency sale abroad. Privately, many Iranians have told reporters that they see no reason their nation should not have nuclear weapons too, as a matter of pride and as a deterrent against hostile action from the West or its neighbors. Others worry that the nuclear issue will cause a rift with the rest of the world and postpone normalization of Iran's international relations and thus is not worth the risk. Times staff writer Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this report.