UN panel votes to report Iran

BERLIN -- The United Nations' atomic energy watchdog voted in Vienna yesterday to report Iran to the UN Security Council, setting the stage for a possible international showdown with Tehran over its nuclear program.

Within hours of the referral, Iran declared that it will stop random UN inspections of its nuclear facilities and will resume the enrichment of uranium at its main plant -- a process that can be used to create weapons-grade nuclear material as well as produce electricity.

The landmark 27-to-3 decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency capped months of wrangling by the body's 35-member board and paved the way for possible economic or political sanctions against Iran by the powerful 15-member Security Council.

It also was a diplomatic victory for the United States and Europe.

Cuba, Syria, and Venezuela voted against the resolution. Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya, and South Africa abstained.

President Bush praised the vote, saying it sends a clear message that the world will not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons.

''The path chosen by Iran's new leaders -- threats, concealment, and breaking international agreements and IAEA seals -- will not succeed and will not be tolerated by the international community," Bush said in a statement from his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Germany's leader, speaking in Munich as the vote was taking place, compared Tehran's ambitions to the Nazi military build-up prior to World War II.

''Iran has blatantly crossed the red line," Chancellor Angela Merkel said at an international security conference.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran assailed the IAEA action, saying in a statement that the vote had occurred ''under the pressure of a number of countries" and ''without any legal justification."

The referral, approved at a special session at agency headquarters in Vienna, was sponsored by Europe's three major powers -- Germany, France, and Britain -- and supported by the United States, which have warned that tough measures may be needed to thwart what they suspect is Iran's efforts to create nuclear weapons at secretive research facilities.

Russia and China, both members of the Security Council, voted in favor of the IAEA's resolution only on the condition that no economic or political sanctions be taken against Iran until next month, at the earliest.

This, Moscow and Beijing believe, will give more time to strike a behind-the-scenes bargain with Iran, possibly allowing Russia to process uranium for planned Iranian nuclear power plants.

But analysts called the UN referral a great victory for Europe and the United States, regardless of whether the Security Council decides to employ stiff measures.

''The West has delivered what it promised," said David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who now heads the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based research institute that focuses on nuclear threats. ''It makes Iran a pariah in the international system, and that deeply bothers the Iranian government."

The agency's resolution formally urged the Security Council to investigate the rising concern that Iran's nuclear program may not be ''exclusively for peaceful purposes."

Iran has maintained it is merely seeking to develop atomic-fired electrical generating plants for civilian use.

In January, the Tehran government rattled international arms regulators by removing UN seals at an experimental facility in Natanz, central Iran, and resuming research on nuclear fuel after a 2 1/2-year suspension of the controversial program.

The research underway in Natanz includes suspected enrichment of uranium, a process that could create material suitable for atomic weapons.

''Commercial scale uranium enrichment will be resumed in Natanz," Javad Vaeidi, deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, told Iranian television from Vienna after the IAEA referral.

Ahmadinejad ordered the countermeasures, the station reported.

The nations known to presently possess nuclear weapons are the United States, Britain, China, France, India, Russia, Pakistan, India, and -- it is widely assumed, although not officially confirmed -- Israel.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking at the Munich conference as the IAEA vote was being taken in Vienna, called the Tehran government ''the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," but expressed hope that diplomatic efforts will be sufficient to halt its nuclear program.

''The world does not want, and must work together to prevent, a nuclear Iran," Rumsfeld said.

Merkel, speaking to the same audience of world defense leaders, described Iran's nuclear plans as chillingly similar to early moves by Hitler's Nazi regime to rebuild the German military -- a buildup of force that was also illegal under international agreements of the time but that was underestimated by US and European leaders.

''In the early 1930s, when National Socialism was on the rise, there were many outside Germany who said 'It's only rhetoric -- don't get excited,' " said Merkel, using the formal name of the Nazi party.

''We must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program," she said, stressing that using diplomatic options, such as economic sanctions against Iran, must be utilized before military actions. ''Diplomatic avenues need to be exhausted. We need to go step by step."

Merkel's surprisingly tough remarks seemed to demonstrate her determination to bring Germany back into a clear alliance with the United States.

Relations between the countries have been strained since her predecessor, Gerhard Schrôder, vociferously opposed the US-led war against Iraq.

Aside from Iran's research, Western leaders have been alarmed by Ahmadinejad's recent comments that the Nazi Holocaust never happened and that Israel must be ''wiped off the map."

An Iranian leader ''who questions Israel's right to exist, a president who denies the Holocaust, cannot be expected to receive any tolerance," said Merkel in remarks just a few hundred yards from the pub where Hitler and his early cohorts plotted the eventual Nazi takeover of Germany.

There has been speculation by American conservatives and some Europeans that military intervention might eventually prove necessary in restraining Iran's nuclear ambitions.

US Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, also in attendance at the Munich conference, said the military option must be kept open.

''Every option must be on the table," he said. ''There's only one thing worse than military action -- that is a nuclear-armed Iran."

In a conference call with reporters, US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns called the IAEA's vote a ''clear rebuke" to Iran's leadership, one that will enable the United States to use its influence in the Security Council to intensify efforts to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program.

''We are going to ratchet up the pressure, step by step," Burns said.

Aside from ''the gang of three" who voted against the referral, Burns said, Iran ''has no other defenders in the world."

But some analysts contend that yesterday's show of international unity will be hard to maintain at the Security Council, where condemnation of Iran's nuclear program will be complicated by the extensive business and energy stakes in Iran held by China, Russia, and other countries.

''The Security Council will eventually lead to an impasse, and then what happens?" said Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Nickerson reported from Berlin; Stockman from New York. Material from the Associated Press was also included.