UK's Straw Says Up to Iran to Prove its Nuclear Intentions

Forbes.com:

It is up to Iran to reassure the international community that it really is not pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. Speaking at a security conference in London, where senior diplomats were holding a closed-door meeting on Iran, Straw underlined the danger of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists.

'This is why the international community's stand against Iran's continued non-compliance with its Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations and successive resolutions of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency is so important,' he said. READ MORE

'The onus is on Iran to act to give the international community confidence that its nuclear programme has exclusive peaceful purposes -- confidence, I'm afraid, that has been sorely undermined by its history of concealment and deception.'

Britain, France and Germany called last Thursday for the IAEA to refer Iran to the UN Security Council -- a step that could lead to sanctions -- after Iran moved to end its voluntary moratorium on uranium enrichment research.

Senior diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and the US are meeting in London today with Chinese and Russian counterparts, hoping to get Beijing and Moscow to back Iran's referral to the Security Council despite the two nations' closer trade and energy links with the Islamic republic.

Straw, speaking at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said: 'It is because of Iran's failure up to now to bring itself into compliance that we are now considering with our partners in Europe and the permanent five of the Security Council a referral of Iran to the Security Council through an emergency meeting of the IAEA board.'

Separately, Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman said the UK detected a 'growing consensus' for a referral, adding that it was an explicit wish of the government.

'Our hope is that the IAEA board will support a referral to the UN,' he said.

On threats from Tehran that Iranian that oil exports would be cut off to push the crude price higher, the spokesman cited comments over the weekend from Germany Chancellor Angel Merkel that the 'international community would not be intimidated'.

'If that is what Iran is trying to do then it is mistaken in its belief that it can do so.'