EU, US hold back move against Iran
Foreign Desk Report

VIENNA—EU powers and Washington will not refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council this week, so that Russia can pursue an initiative to ease a crisis over Tehran’s suspected nuclear arms plans, diplomats said on Monday.
They said a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog this week would shelve a referral resolution in favor of a statement voicing concern about what diplomats said was a document received by Iran containing partial nuclear bomb-making instructions. “There will be no resolution for sure. The Russians and Chinese oppose this,” said a diplomat from the so-called EU3 — France, Britain and Germany — ahead of Thursday’s governing board session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
In September, the IAEA board passed a resolution declaring that Iran had violated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by hiding potentially weapons-related atomic fuel activities from the IAEA for 18 years. The resolution called for Iran’s breaches to be reported to the Security Council, which has the power to impose economic sanctions, but did not say when the referral should take place. Tehran denies Western allegations that it has a covert atomic weapons program and insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity. EU diplomats said this was the main reason for holding off on the Security Council referral — to give Tehran more time to consider a Russian proposal that would allow Iran to continue nuclear fuel production if it shifted its most critical stage, uranium enrichment, to Russia as part of a joint venture. Without officially rejecting the Russian idea, Iran has made it clear they must enrich uranium domestically, calling this a sovereign right it would never renounce.