Divisions among the members of the United Nations Security Council over its response to Iran's announcement on uranium enrichment has prompted the 15-member body to consider the issue only after International Atomic Energy Agency's report on Tehran's compliance to the demand that it stop all nuclear programmes.
Diplomats said that the members would like to give time to IAEA chief Mohammed Elbaradei to persuade Iran and report back before taking any action.
The Council had asked Iran to comply to the UNSC directives to re-establish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment related and reprocessing activities by April 28. There is no reason for it to consider the issue before the timeline expires, a senior diplomat said.
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Complete Coverage: The Iran vote and after
Elbaradei has already arrived in Tehran and will hold talks with Iran's chief negotiator on the nuclear issue, Ali Larijani and the vice president of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Gholamreza Aghazadeh.
On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Tehran has succeeded in enriching uranium on a small scale for the first time. The Security Council had given it until April 28 to cease all activities in this area.
The rationale behind major powers not rushing to an immediate action on Iran's announcement might be that Tehran would take years to make an actual nuclear weapon, diplomats added. But they agreed that Iranian action was in defiance of the Council statement, which had called on it to end uranium enrichment activities.
Meanwhile, the permanent members in the UNSC the United States, Britain, Russia, France and China and Germany are meeting in Moscow next week to draw up a coordinated response, something, which has eluded them so far.
Russia joined the US in asking Iran to comply with the Council demand and stop its uranium enrichment activities but Tehran rejected Moscow's criticism and asserted that the process now cannot be reversed.
Media reports said that Iran is planning to increase the number of centrifuges to used for enrichment purposes to around 3000, which will enable it to produce weapon grade uranium.
In a highly cautious response, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed to all to 'cool down' their rhetoric and actively search for a diplomatic solution.
"Yes, they have pursued their research," Annan said, adding, "But I hope they will be able to come back to the table and work with the international community to find a negotiated solution."
Recalling that Iran has all along maintained that its intent is to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy for the country, he said that if that indeed is the case, 'they should be able to give the international community that assurance and work with everybody to find a solution out of this.'
In 2003, it was discovered that Iran had carried out secret nuclear activities for 18 years in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran maintains that its programme is for peaceful purposes and hence legal under the NPT, to which it is a signatory.
