Iran gained a reprieve in the standoff over its nuclear program Wednesday, with diplomats saying the European Union had decided to postpone its push to refer Iran to the UN Security Council.
The decision to delay a vote until a later board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency instead of demanding one this week appeared driven by concerns about strong opposition. More than a dozen of the 35 IAEA board member countries meeting in Vienna, including Security Council members Russia and China, are against the idea.
(A new EU draft) text is expected to be introduced at this week's IAEA meeting, but any vote on referral would come only at a future session, at the earliest when the board meets again in November, said the diplomats, who demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss EU strategy at the meeting.
In other words, the speech that was supposed to crystallize world opinion against Iran has changed the position only of the EU, which not only wants to hold off on immediate referral to the Security Council, but isn't even discussing the possibility in its latest motion. And the only reason why the U.S. isn't fighting the change tooth and nail is that it's afraid of a veto if the issue comes to a Security Council vote.
Which isn't to say that the U.S./E.U. bloc can be seen as being reasonable in any event. But at the very least, the group has been forced to tone down its rhetoric lest it be exposed as having nothing to back up its words.
Speaking of empty rhetoric, the article has this bonus quote from Scott McLellan:
"We've expressed our concerns about Iran's behaviour," McClellan said. "They have a long history of deceiving the international community, of not abiding by their international obligations, and that's why we remain concerned about their true intentions."
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