Russia and China want more time for diplomacy over Iran

EUROPE and the United States are struggling to get Russia and China on board to crack down on Iran at a UN meeting next month as Israel said it would not tolerate nuclear capability for Iran.

While some move by the International Atomic Energy Agency seems certain when the UN watchdog meets on February 2, it is unclear how much of a deadline it will be for Iran.

A diplomat close to the IAEA said key Iranian trade partner Russia wanted to split the action, “with a nominal referral in February but giving Iran one month to deliver on demands to suspend nuclear fuel work and to co-operate” with IAEA inspections.

The IAEA is to hold another meeting on March 6.

A Western diplomat said EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany as well as the United States “rejected this idea outright”.

The EU trio and the US “are trying to sell” China and Russia on a tough resolution at the IAEA meeting to send Iran before the Security Council for possible sanctions, said a second diplomat, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

China, a major recipient of Iranian oil, and Russia want to give diplomacy more time in a crisis which escalated when Tehran this month announced it was resuming nuclear fuel work that can make atom bomb material.

IAEA director Mohamed ElBardei has already given Iran until March to comply with a report on its co-operation that he is to file at the board meeting then.

Russia, which has a billion-dollar contract to build Iran’s first nuclear reactor, and China each have vetos on the Security Council and are worried about the crisis escalating.

A non-aligned diplomat said there was already fall-out as countries like India, a major client for Iranian oil and a big player on the IAEA’s 35-nation board, are feeling the pinch from high prices for crude.

Iran has 10% of the world’s oil reserves and has threatened to use its supply as a weapon.

Yesterday it denounced the upcoming emergency IAEA meeting as “political” but said it was not worried about the crisis ending up at the Security Council.

A week ago Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed his country would not back down, even if ordered to do so by the Security Council.

Also piling on the pressure is Israel.

It has come to view the Islamic republic as its number one enemy and its fears were heightened in October when Mr Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said his government would not tolerate a “nuclear option” for Iran.