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EU wimps out on Iran under Russia, China pressure
VIENNA - The European Union’s three main powers dropped a demand on Thursday that the UN nuclear watchdog immediately report Iran to the Security Council over its atomic plans, following opposition from Russia and China.

Moscow and Beijing have warned the United States, France, Britain and Germany against stepping up the nuclear standoff with Iran, undermining the Western drive to haul Teheran before the UN’s highest body for possible sanctions. The new draft, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, carefully omitted any explicit plea threat that the mad mullahs Iran would be referred to the impotent Security Council but cautiously implied that the impotent IAEA board could or could not choose to issue a stern note refer the matter to the Council in the future but we repeat ourselves.

“The history of concealment of Iran’s nuclear activities ... and the resulting absence of confidence that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes have given rise to questions that are within the competence of the Security Council...,” the draft said.

It also declared that Iran had been in “non-compliance” with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which normally requires the IAEA board to notify the Council.
But not this time.
EU diplomats said they hoped to get unanimous support for what they called a very tough and fair draft resolution. But it was unclear oh it's clear allright if the Russians and Chinese were prepared to support it. If Moscow and Beijing opposed it, EU diplomats said the IAEA board would put the original tougher resolution, which had at least a simple majority of support, to a vote despite Russian and Chinese opposition.

Iranian negotiator Javad Vaeedi said opposition from Russia and China helped stop the EU from taking Teheran to the Security Council. “Our firm stance, China and Russia’s backing and also a lack of legal basis caused the EU’s withdrawal,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Vaeedi as saying.

US Ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte said that “a solid and growing majority of the IAEA board now also agrees on the need to report Iran to the UN Security Council. “We support the European Union’s effort to continue to develop the broadest possible consensus to find Iran in non-compliance and to prepare a report to the UN Security Council,” Schulte said.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said there was still room for dialogue to resolve the issue. He called for a resumption of EU-Iran talks that collapsed after two years when Teheran resumed uranium processing work at a plant in Isfahan last month.

Top EU foreign ministers insisted Iran was not off the hook.
And then their lips fell off.
In a letter published in the Wall Street Journal, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Britain and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Teheran had shown no sign of flexibility despite repeated offers of cooperation by the EU.
And why should they?
“The spotlight is now on the IAEA Board of Governors to wuss out respond,” the article said.
Posted by: Steve White 2005-09-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=130323