Superpowers fail to agree on Iran issue

The UN Security Council8217;s five veto-wielding members and Germany failed to reach an agreement on how to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue after holding four hours of talks but all sides committed to a new round of meetings to break the impasse.

The UN Security Council8217;s five veto-wielding members and Germany failed to reach an agreement on how to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue after holding four hours of talks but all sides committed to a new round of meetings to break the impasse.

The meeting was billed as an attempt to develop a long term strategy to deter Iran from producing any nuclear weapon but there was vast chasm in the positions taken by the US, Britain and France on one side and Russia and China on the other. The deadlock came as US and European officials said that Britain8217;s strategy for getting Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions would be to try to get Russia and China to impose sanctions that could be enforced militarily if diplomacy fails, according to a letter.

At the meeting last night, officials were joined by their United Nations ambassadors struggling to produce a consensus text for the presidential statement on the Iranian nuclear issue. But no agreement could be reached.

Britain and the Western allies face an uphill struggle in getting Moscow and Beijing even to agree on a UN Security Council statement calling on Iran to comply with demands by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to suspend uranium enrichment.

US Ambassador John Bolton had expressed hope that the statement could be adopted after council discussions Tuesday afternoon. But US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters on Monday night that the senior diplomats from the six countries needed more time for negotiations.

8216;8216;We remain convinced that we will achieve a presidential statement,8217;8217; Burns said. 8220;It may take a little bit of time, but it8217;s going to be worth the time because when we do achieve that statement, it will be yet another clear unified message by the international community that Iran has to heed the words of both the IAEA and the UN Security Council.8217;8217;

He reiterated that the six countries oppose Iran seeking a nuclear weapons capability and agree that Tehran is not complying with its international commitments and 8220;is now traveling down a road toward enrichment and reprocessing which will be fundamentally detrimental to the interests of the world of nonproliferation and of peace and security.8221; But serious differences remain on the best way to get Tehran to halt uranium enrichment.

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The senior diplomats from the six countries agreed on a brief statement which said their meeting 8220;built on progress8221; at a London meeting of their foreign ministers on January 30.

8220;We share a deep concern that Iran has failed to respond positively to the IAEA resolution of February 4, continues enrichment and has ceased cooperation under the IAEA additional protocol8221; which allows surprise inspections, it said. 8220;We will remain in close touch to finalise draft Security Council action.8221;

Diplomats said the Russians and Chinese have not budged from their opposition to tough language in the proposed council statement including a demand for a report in 14 days on Iran8217;s compliance with IAEA demands. Moscow and Beijing have said that is too short.