Iran defiant as new UN resolution under way
By Daniel Dombey and Stephen Fidler
February 27, 2007 
The Financial Times
Original Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/25162e44-c5c3-11db-9fae-000b5df10621.html

Iran remained defiant on Tuesday after world powers agreed to work on a new UN resolution to stall Tehran’s atomic plans.
US and British diplomats said on Monday the world’s big powers had agreed to start work on new United Nations measures against Iran after Tehran’s failure last week to meet a deadline on 
its nuclear programme. 
They argued that the west s strategy of incremental pressure still had time to succeed despite difficulties in agreeing far-reaching steps.
 We began work on a new [UN] Security Council resolution	 .	 .	 .	 we also considered how best t
o re-engage with Iran,” said the British Foreign Office, after officials met in London to discuss toughening the sanctions against Iran agreed in December. The officials – from the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany – will now consult their governments.
On Tuesday, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki restated Tehran’s oft-held position by saying Iran would never suspend uranium enrichment as demanded by the west.
The Foreign Office added that the diplomats would resume contact this week.
Separately, a US official told the Financial Times there was still time to resolve the dispute diplomatically.
“The genie isn’t out of the bottle yet but...they are working very aggressively to get it out,” he said, referring to Iran’s efforts to move on with uranium enrichment, which can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material.
Last week the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said Iran had installed or nearly installed more than 600 centrifuges at a site intended for large-scale uranium enrichment, and aimed to have 3,000 centrifuges operating by May.
The US and the EU want Russia and China to sign up to a travel ban on named individuals in Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes.
In addition, the US, with some UK support, would like Europe to cut back on export credits to companies doing business with Iran and to restrict arms sales.
These measures might be difficult to agree and the big powers could decide to exercise greater voluntary re-straint or to back a move at the UN calling on, but not requiring, states to limit such dealings with Tehran.
The US and the EU argue that Iran has been unsettled by Security Council censure and Washington has sought to increase the pressure by dispatching a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf.
Such military moves have been criticised by Russia, which is key to agreeing further sanctions. Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister, said on Monday he was “concerned that forecasts and predictions of strikes on Iran have become frequent”.
Meanwhile, Javad Zarif, Iran’s outgoing ambassador to the UN, told a conference in New York that a deal on the nuclear programme that included a political commitment to peaceful activity, greater monitoring by the IAEA and the participation of an international or regional consortium in its uranium enrichment was still possible.
Mr Zarif told the meeting of the Century Foundation that there was “enough on the table already to find a resolution on the nuclear issue”, but described the Security Council as “part of the problem”, alleging it had been used as a tool of the US rather than as a genuine way of finding a negotiated deal.
He sidestepped questions about what conditions would be needed for Iran to suspend enrichment but said any demand on it to abandon its right to nuclear technology was “not a good solution”.
Additional reporting by Neil Buckley in Moscow and Mark Turner at the United Nations