U.S. May Turn to Watchdog Agency on Iran
Frustrated With Security Council, U.S. May Turn to U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Agency to Pressure Iran

By George Jahn
April 19, 2006
ABC News
Original Source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1860057&page=1
VIENNA, Austria Apr 19, 2006 (AP)— The United States may turn to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to exert more pressure on Iran over its atomic program out of frustration with Russian and Chinese opposition to firm Security Council action, diplomats said Wednesday. 
The diplomats, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the American initiative, said the U.S. delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency had contacted other national delegations over the past few days to gauge support for a special IAEA board meeting on Iran. 
The diplomats emphasized that no decision had been taken by the Americans to call for such a meeting. Still, the fact that Washington was contemplating such action was significant. 
U.S. officials have for weeks been publicly in favor of shifting international attention over Iran's nuclear program from the Vienna-based IAEA which has no enforcement authority to the Security Council, which has the power to impose economic and political sanctions backed by the threat of military force. 
Years of U.S. lobbying played a significant role in having the IAEA's 35-nation board refer Iran's nuclear file to the council in February. But since then, the council's five veto-wielding members have been split, with China and Russia opposing efforts by the United States, France and Britain to move from requesting Iranian compliance to demanding it. 
The split appeared to persist into Wednesday. 
While Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged Iran to halt all uranium enrichment after a Moscow meeting among senior officials of the five permanent council members plus Germany, a European official said initial readouts of the talks showed little progress in bridging the gap. 
Lavrov himself acknowledged that the talks brought no decision on how to proceed. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told The Associated Press that the possibility of sanctions had been discussed, but he indicated that further talks were needed. 
Lavrov said no decisions had been expected at Tuesday's meeting because the nations were waiting for a report from IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Iran's nuclear program later this month. He said Russia wants the report to be reviewed by the IAEA board before it goes to the Security Council, which has set an April 28 deadline for Tehran to suspend enrichment. 
Iran announced earlier this month that it had successfully enriched uranium, a significant step toward the large-scale production of the material that can be used to fuel nuclear reactors for generating electricity or to build atomic bombs. 
Iran says it only seeks to generate nuclear fuel, but the Americans and dozens of other countries fear Iran wants the technology to make the core of nuclear warheads. 
Russia, not eager for a discussion of sanctions in the Security Council, has repeatedly stressed that the IAEA is the best forum for discussions on the Iranian program. 
That stance has been opposed by the Americans, French and British. But one of the Vienna-based diplomats said Washington appeared to be ready to fill the gap by seeking a special board session to bridge over anticipated future weeks of council inactivity. 
He said members of the U.S. mission to the IAEA had already worked out different scenarios for what such a board meeting could accomplish but refused to go into details. He said the British were opposed because it would complicate the process, but if the Americans want it, it's going to happen.