UK Changes Tack in Nuclear Talks

Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian:

The British government softened its stance on the Iranian nuclear issue yesterday as it tries to win over countries wavering about referral to the UN security council. Britain, France and Germany have for the past year been threatening Iran with the prospect of sanctions if it resumed the uranium enrichment process, which it did last month. But a British official yesterday toned down that language for the first time, shifting the emphasis away from sanctions.

Britain, along with the US, France, Germany and Israel, suspects that Iran is covertly engaged in trying to secure a nuclear weapon capability. Iran claims that it is only interested in a civilian nuclear programme.

Britain, backed by the US, claims it has "a modest majority" on the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog scheduled to meet in Vienna on September 19, for referral to the security council.

Many developing countries on the board are opposed, seeing it as an attempt by western powers to dictate to a member of the developing world. READ MORE

The government's problems were compounded yesterday when Russia, a member of the IAEA board, said publicly, for the first time, it opposes such a referral.

The Russian foreign ministry said that it "does not see any basis for transferring the question, which the IAEA is dealing with actively and productively, to the security council".

The unity of Britain, France and Germany on the issue could also be undermined. Wolfgang Gerhardt, foreign affairs spokesman for Germany's liberal democrats, said yesterday: "The Iran negotiations are not yet a topic for the security council: rather, the negotiations should be revived."

The senior British official said that if the Iran issue was referred to the security council, it would be to enable the security council to add its weight to the work of the IAEA rather than to embark on "punitive actions".