EU backs down on Iran under pressure
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-23 07:00

It also declared that Iran had been in "non-compliance" with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which normally requires the IAEA board to notify the Council.

EU diplomats said they hoped to get unanimous support for what they called a very tough and fair draft resolution.

But it was unclear if the Russians and Chinese were prepared to support it. If Moscow and Beijing opposed it, EU diplomats said the IAEA board would put the original tougher resolution, which had at least a simple majority of support, to a vote despite Russian and Chinese opposition.

Iranian negotiator Javad Vaeedi said opposition from Russia and China helped stop the EU from taking Tehran to the Security Council.

"Our firm stance, China and Russia's backing and also a lack of legal basis caused the EU's withdrawal," the official IRNA news agency quoted Vaeedi as saying.

EU, U.S. WON'T GIVE UP

U.S. Ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte said that "a solid and growing majority of the IAEA board now also agrees on the need to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

"We support the European Union's effort to continue to develop the broadest possible consensus to find Iran in non-compliance and to prepare a report to the U.N. Security Council," Schulte said.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said there was still room for dialogue to resolve the issue. He called for a resumption of EU-Iran talks that collapsed after two years when Tehran resumed uranium processing work at a plant in Isfahan last month.

Top EU foreign ministers insisted Iran was not off the hook.

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