EU delays referring Iran to UN Security Council

THE European Union has backed away from a direct push to refer Iran to the UN Security Council this week and is now only implicitly threatening Tehran with such action, according to a document obtained yesterday by The Associated Press.

The document - a draft resolution drawn up for the current meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) 35-nation board - now says only that suspicions over Iran’s nuclear programme are “within the competence of the Security Council.”

A previous draft had called for reporting Tehran to the UN top decision-making body.