BRITAIN and its European allies yesterday backed away from threatening economic sanctions against Iran if the country is referred to the United Nations Security Council over its controversial nuclear programme.

As Britain, France and Germany began drafting a resolution before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran to the UN, an official at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said that Britain favoured a gradual, sustained build-up to force Tehran to comply with its international obligations.

“We do not see this leading straight into sanctions,” said the official. “We see a gradual build-up of moves that will take place over time. We are not going to [the UN Security Council in] New York to introduce punitive sanctions against Iran. That is not our approach.”

Although the UN Security Council has the power to impose sanctions, and even authorise the use of force, punitive measures are not being considered by the British.

“The Security Council has weight and authority on the issues,” said the FCO official.

“A country cannot ignore the calls and requirements of the Security Council without cost. It brings together major players acting in concert. It can issue political calls which will have weight.”

British, French and German diplomats had begun drafting the referral resolution before the IAEA. Diplomats said that it called on Iran to “extend full and prompt co-operation to the agency” and called for “additional transparency measures”. But it made no reference to the threat of sanctions.

The softening of the European position seemed to be aimed at wooing Moscow and Beijing, which have strong commercial links with Iran and are deeply opposed to any measures that might harm them.

“The question of sanctions against Iran puts the cart before the horse,” said Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, whose country has a $1 billion (£566 million) contract to build Iran’s nuclear reactor. “Sanctions are in no way the best, or the only, way to solve the problem.”

His view was echoed by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman who favoured “patience” and the resumption of talks between Iran and the three leading European Union nations. Those talks ended last week when Iran broke a commitment to suspend nuclear research work and resumed enriching uranium, the process needed to make nuclear fuel or the core of an atomic warhead.

Iran wrote to Britain, France and Germany yesterday insisting that a compromise could still be reached. The offer, in a letter written by Javad Vaeedi, the deputy head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was dismissed as “vacuous” by the British side, which blamed Tehran for creating the conditions that made successful talks impossible.

Neither Moscow nor Beijing have made their final positions public, though how they stand in the coming weeks will be critical to the success or failure of Western diplomacy. Their policy will influence other waverers among the 35 member states of the IAEA, which will vote at an emergency meeting in Vienna in a fortnight.

British diplomats believe that at least 22 nations will vote for referral, nine will abstain and a handful of nations will oppose the move — Belarus, Cuba, Syria and Venezuela. Once that hurdle has been cleared, there will be a new dynamic at the 15-nation UN Security Council.

There is likely to be broad agreement between America, Britain, France and Germany on the need to deal quickly with Iran.

Russia and China, who as permanent members of the Council have veto powers, will be pivotal to the outcome.

It was not clear last night how Europe’s kid-glove diplomacy would be received in Washington. America has been imposing its own unilateral sanctions on Iran for nearly three decades and wants the international community to adopt a robust approach to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

TOURISTS FREED

Three Turkish tourists kidnapped in southeast Iran in December have been freed. Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Abdullah Gul, thanked the Iranian government for helping to win the release of the amateur paragliders. Iran said that a Sunni group had abducted them but Turkey blamed drug traffickers seeking a ransom. (AFP)

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