Iran Warns Against Sanctions as Move in Nuclear Standoff 
By Reuters
January 16, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/16/international/middleeast/16iran.html

TEHRAN, Jan. 15 (Reuters) - Iran said Sunday that only diplomacy, not threats to refer the country to the United Nations Security Council for possible punishment, could defuse a standoff over its nuclear work, and warned that any Western push for sanctions could force up world oil prices. 
At the same time, Republican and Democratic senators in Washington said that the United States might ultimately have to undertake a military strike to deter Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but that it should be the last resort.
That is the last option, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said on the CBS News program Face the Nation. Everything else has to be exhausted. But to say under no circumstances would we exercise a military option, that would be crazy.
The Security Council's five permanent members and Germany planned to meet Monday in London in search of a common strategy to tackle Iran's resumption of atomic fuel research and development after a two-year moratorium.
Iran says it wants only to make power for its energy-needy economy. But the United States and a number of other Western countries are convinced that Iran has ambitions to build nuclear bombs and they note that it had hidden nuclear work from international monitors for almost 20 years. 
Last week, after many starts and stops in talks to meet Iran's energy requirements while satisfying Western concerns about its becoming a nuclear power, Tehran scrapped its suspension of research.
Nevertheless, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said Sunday at his weekly news conference: Diplomacy is the only clear answer to the current situation. There is no legal basis for referring Iran to the Security Council. But if that were to happen, Iran is not afraid.
Economy Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari warned that any sanctions could possibly, by disturbing Iran's political and economic situation, raise oil prices beyond levels the West expects. 
Iran is the world's fourth-largest exporter of crude oil.
Many European Union, Russian, Chinese and developing world companies also conduct lucrative energy-related trade with Iran, suggesting economic sanctions are anything but inevitable if the Security Council takes up the matter.
Mr. Asefi called on the countries attending the London meeting - the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany - to refrain from the language of intimidation and threats.
Better results will definitely be achieved by resorting to negotiations and using respectful language, he said.
However, Senator McCain and other American lawmakers said force could not be ruled out entirely.
Mr. McCain called the standoff the most grave situation that we have faced since the end of the cold war, absent the whole war on terror.
We must go to the U.N. now for sanctions. If the Russians and the Chinese, for reasons that would be abominable, do not join us then we will have to go with the nations that are willing, he said.
Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on the CNN program Late Edition that there were elements of Iran's nuclear program that, if attacked, would dramatically delay its development.
But that should not be an option at this point, he said. We ought to use everything else possible to keep from getting to that juncture. 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week that using force was not an option at this point.
In an interview with Newsweek released on Sunday, Mohamed ElBaradei, who leads the international monitoring agency, said he could not yet confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's program.
Dr. ElBaradei said Iran might not seem to care, but if I say that I am not able to confirm the peaceful nature of that program after three years of intensive work, well, that's a conclusion that's going to reverberate around the world.