Rice: U.S. has votes to bring Iran before Security Council

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday the United States and its European allies have the votes to bring Iran before the U.N. Security Council for possible censure over its nuclear ambitions, signaling increasing skepticism that continued negotiations with Iran will ever succeed.

“The Iranians are digging their own hole of isolation deeper and deeper,” Rice said at a breakfast with State Department reporters, referring to Iran’s announcement this week that it would resume nuclear fuel research after voluntarily suspending much of its program in 2004 to hold talks with Britain, France and Germany.

Iranian officials Thursday failed to appear at a planned meeting to explain their decision with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Rice wouldn’t lay out a timeline for action, saying the administration wanted to achieve as large a vote as possible by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors to refer the matter to the Security Council.

But she asserted the Bush administration has worked hard in the past year to build a consensus for action, first by settling differences with European allies over the best diplomatic approach and then by demonstrating that the Iranians were not serious about the talks.

“The European-American consensus is very strong. Others are coming to that consensus,” Rice said. “That’s not saber rattling. That’s diplomacy.”

Rice’s unusually blunt comments on Iran suggested the administration was gearing up for a major push to bring Iran before the U.N. Security Council.

“I don’t have any doubt that at the right time, a time of our choosing, we’re going to go to the Security Council if the Iranians are not prepared to do what they say they want to do, which is to pursue peaceful nuclear energy,” Rice said.

“When it’s clear that negotiations are exhausted, we have the votes,” she said. “There is a resolution sitting there for referral. We’ll vote it.”

But a European diplomat familiar with the Iranian diplomacy said Rice’s prediction appeared too optimistic.

The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely, said the Americans and Europeans still had a lot of work to do and it was “no easy sale” yet, though the allies were arguing that referring the matter to the Security Council would be done mainly to support the IAEA, not immediately impose sanctions.

The diplomat said a number of countries appeared sympathetic to Iran’s argument that it had a right to enrich uranium under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in part because they hoped to reserve the option of one day doing it themselves.

Even if the referral is made to the Security Council, it isn’t clear how quickly the United States could muster support for additional actions. Nearly three years ago, the IAEA referred North Korea to the Council for violating the NPT, but the matter has languished and no action has been taken.