Twelve Years Later

AP: U.S. Presses Case for Action Against Iran---

VIENNA, Austria - The United States on Wednesday pressed its case to have Iran hauled before the U.N. Security Council for its nuclear activities, urging fellow members of the International Atomic Energy Agency board to vote for such action in the next few days.

Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh flew to Vienna to try to build support for Tehran among the 35 nations on the IAEA's board. He said that despite displeasure over the Security Council push, his country would stick to its nuclear nonproliferation commitments whatever the board decided.

Aghazadeh spoke to reporters after meeting with representatives of Russia, China and the Nonaligned Movement — all of them opposed to a U.S.-European push for referral being prepared at an IAEA board meeting.

In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry criticized a move by the United States and European countries to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program as "counterproductive," the Interfax news agency reported.

"This will not contribute to the search for a solution to the Iranian problem through political and diplomatic means," Interfax quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying.

The chief U.S. representative, meanwhile, pushed for support of referral — formally a European Union initiative but being orchestrated in close consultation with Washington and backed by Australia, Japan, Canada and others at the meeting.

"We agree with the European Union and a growing majority of the board that the time has come to report Iran's (nuclear) noncompliance to the Security Council," U.S. delegation head Gregory Schulte told the meeting. "It is now time for the board to do our duty."

If one takes into account the UN's track record for acting on threats, it will be at least 12 years before anything substantial is done about Iran.