Kofi Annan looks to appease again-even pissing off Europe

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Bush challenges Iran on nuclear program

He wants U.N. Security Council role, Tehran threatens to end inspections

NBC News and news services

Updated: 12:41 p.m. ET Jan. 13, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran - President Bush said Friday that the issue of Iran’s nuclear program should go before the U.N. Security Council, challenging Iran just hours after it threatened to block inspections of its nuclear sites if confronted by the council.

It is “logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic entreaties be sent to the United Nations Security Council,†the president said at a White House press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The United States, Germany and other nations need to “send a common message to the Iranians ... to not have a nuclear weapon to blackmail or threaten the world,†Bush said.

Earlier Friday, Iran said that if it were confronted by the council, it would have to stop cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That would be, among other things, the end of random inspections, said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

“In case Iran is referred to the U.N. Security Council ... the government will be obliged to end all of its voluntary cooperation,†the television quoted Mottaki as saying.

U.S. mad at Annan

Meantime, the Bush administration feels that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave Iran the impression that there was a way out of dealing with Europe and the United States, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell quoted State Department and other administration sources as saying.

Europe and the United States had spent months lining up Russia’s support for Security Council action, the sources said. But when Annan spoke with Iran's top nuclear negotiator on Thursday, he suggested that the issue did not need to head to the Security Council after all.

Annan told reporters Thursday that the negotiator, Ali Larijani, said Iran wanted to resume negotiations with the Europeans, but this time with a deadline.

“He affirmed to me that they are interested in serious and constructive negotiations but within a time frame, indicating that the last time they did it for 2 1/2 years and no result,†Annan said.

Annan’s comments came as the foreign ministers of Germany, Britain and France said Thursday that negotiations with Iran had reached a “dead end†and that Tehran should be referred to the Security Council, which could impose sanctions. That view was endorsed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The ministers called for a special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which must formally refer Iran to the Security Council. The Europeans held back from calling on the 15-nation council to impose sanctions and said they remained open to more talks.

The European statement came two days after Iran broke U.N. seals at a uranium enrichment plant and said it was resuming nuclear research after a two-year freeze.

‘Give diplomacy a chance,’ Annan says

Annan met late Thursday with envoys from Germany, Britain, France, the United States and Russia to brief them on his conversation with Larijani. A statement from Annan’s office said “the interest of all concerned is for a constructive process that will give diplomacy a chance.â€

But one diplomat briefed on the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private, said France, Britain and the United States were angered that the secretary-general had decided to get involved so late in the game when the Europeans were in the lead.

A senior U.S. official told NBC News that the administration hopes Annan will back down Friday, but that in any case the administration was shocked that he would try to duck having the issue come to the Security Council — the only forum where countries can line up against Iran.

Rice: 'Strong message' needed

Rice on Thursday said a “strong message†had to be sent to Tehran but said she was not ready to talk about what action should be taken to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had “strong suspicion†that Iran wanted to build a nuclear bomb but stressed that there was no categorical evidence to prove that.

“To quote the White House ‘Iran is not Iraq’,†Straw said in an interview Friday with the British Broadcasting Corp.

He added that while Iran could face Security Council sanctions for resuming its nuclear activities, military action is not being considered.

“This can only be resolved by peaceful means. Nobody is talking about invading Iran or taking military action,†he said.

Nuclear fuel research resumed

The calls to refer Iran to Security Council were made two days after Iran removed some U.N. seals in the presence of IAEA inspectors from its main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, central Iran, and resumed research on nuclear fuel.

Iran said it was resuming “merely research†and that “production of nuclear fuel†— which would involve enrichment — “remains suspended.†But the IAEA said Tehran also planned small-scale enrichment of uranium, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity or material for nuclear weapons.

“I recommend to European countries that they should separate the issue of research from production of nuclear fuel and not make propaganda over research which is natural and normal but had unjustly been subject to suspension in the past,†Mottaki was quoted as saying.

Mottaki said Iran was prepared for talks with Europeans over uranium enrichment.

“If they have any discussion in the stage of nuclear fuel production, we are prepared to continue our talks with the three European countries,†he said.

Mottaki, however, insisted that Iran won’t give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to possess the whole nuclear fuel cycle — from extracting uranium ore to enriching it.

“No one can take this right from the Iranian nation. Regaining this right doesn’t require permission from any country,†the television quoted him as saying.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.