Russia "regrets" Iran defying nuclear deadline

RUSSIA: Russia regrets Iran's failure to heed a United Nations resolution and stop enriching uranium, RIA news agency quoted the Foreign Ministry's chief spokesman as saying on Friday.

"We express our regret that Iran did not abide by (U.N. Security Council) resolution 1696 and has not ended work on enriching uranium by the deadline set out in that document," the agency quoted spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying.

Kamynin said major powers would be having consultations in the next few days to decide on further action. He did not mention if that would include sanctions.

Tehran missed a Thursday deadline to stop enrichment work - a programme it says is to generate electricity but which the West suspects could be a cover for building a bomb.

It now faces the threat of U.N. sanctions, though China and Russia could use their veto power in the Security Council to block sanctions.

Meanwhile tehran has failed to dispel international doubts it wants nuclear bombs, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency reported clearing the way for the Security Council to consider sanctions on Tehran.

But council diplomats said they would proceed cautiously, delaying deliberations until after a meeting between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

After that, John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he would meet with his French, British and German counterparts to begin talks on a sanctions resolution.

"We are certainly ready to proceed here in New York once we are given the instruction to do so," Bolton told reporters.

Western countries, including the United States and the European Union fear Tehran is using a civilian nuclear energy program as a cover for making atomic bombs. Iran says it wants only to generate electricity.

The Security Council and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, had demanded that Iran suspend its enrichment of nuclear material by the end of August - needed to make fuel for both bombs and nuclear power plants - so that talks could begin on a way to resolve the crisis.

But an IAEA report said Iran just last week resumed making low-enriched uranium, suitable for power plant fuel, with a cascade of 164 centrifuges at its pilot enrichment plant.

It also said a lack of Iranian cooperation had crippled three-year-old IAEA probes into the program.

"Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities," the IAEA said. "Iran has not addressed the long outstanding verification issues or provided the necessary transparency to remove uncertainties associated with some of its activities."

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, while deploring Tehran's "unsatisfactory response" to the proposal for negotiations, said he remained convinced that "priority must still be given to the path of dialogue."

Moscow, New York, Friday, Reuters