2008 Woodie Awards
Europe Moves to Refer Iran to United Nations Security Council
Matthew Schofield and Jonathan S. Landay
Issue date: 1/16/06 Section: News
After Iran ignored warnings not to restart its uranium enrichment research, European leaders on Thursday declared an end to negotiations with the Islamic Republic and called for hauling it before the U.N. Security Council.
The decision marked an escalation in the long-simmering crisis over whether Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, which would add instability to the Middle East.
The Security Council could impose punitive measures, including economic sanctions, although that is unlikely immediately.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was confident that the matter would go to the council, asserting that Iran "has chosen confrontation with the international community."
"A very important threshold has been crossed," she said.
She indicated that the United States and its European allies would hold off on pushing for economic sanctions, which Security Council members Russia and China oppose because of their economic stakes in oil-rich Iran.
Instead, U.S. and Western diplomats said, the United States and Europe probably will ask the council to arm the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog, with greater powers to investigate whether Iran is working on nuclear weapons.
The European decision to end more than two years of testy negotiations came two days after Iranian engineers broke IAEA seals on several facilities, including a key nuclear center at Natanz, in central Iran.
German Foreign Minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier said that he, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and French Foreign Affairs Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy concluded during a meeting here that they had no choice but to halt the talks, which were to have resumed January 18.
"We hope for a peaceful solution," Steinmeier said. "But it appears the time has come for the Security Council to be informed."
"Our talks with Iran have reached a dead end," he said.
Steinmeier said the ministers would ask the 35-member IAEA board of governors to convene an emergency meeting - expected sometime during the week of January 23 - to approve a resolution referring the issue to the council.
The decision marked an escalation in the long-simmering crisis over whether Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, which would add instability to the Middle East.
The Security Council could impose punitive measures, including economic sanctions, although that is unlikely immediately.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was confident that the matter would go to the council, asserting that Iran "has chosen confrontation with the international community."
"A very important threshold has been crossed," she said.
She indicated that the United States and its European allies would hold off on pushing for economic sanctions, which Security Council members Russia and China oppose because of their economic stakes in oil-rich Iran.
Instead, U.S. and Western diplomats said, the United States and Europe probably will ask the council to arm the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog, with greater powers to investigate whether Iran is working on nuclear weapons.
The European decision to end more than two years of testy negotiations came two days after Iranian engineers broke IAEA seals on several facilities, including a key nuclear center at Natanz, in central Iran.
German Foreign Minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier said that he, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and French Foreign Affairs Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy concluded during a meeting here that they had no choice but to halt the talks, which were to have resumed January 18.
"We hope for a peaceful solution," Steinmeier said. "But it appears the time has come for the Security Council to be informed."
"Our talks with Iran have reached a dead end," he said.
Steinmeier said the ministers would ask the 35-member IAEA board of governors to convene an emergency meeting - expected sometime during the week of January 23 - to approve a resolution referring the issue to the council.