China and Russia have rejected joining the West in a joint statement urging Iran to halt uranium enrichment, in diplomatic maneuvering ahead of a debate at the UN nuclear watchdog. Diplomats played down the significance of this however, as China and Russia have already joined Britain, France, Germany and the United States in a ministerial agreement on June 1 calling on Iran to halt enrichment and join in talks on guaranteeing it will not make nuclear weapons.
"The effort didn't work to do a joint statement in Vienna," a senior European diplomat told AFP.
But the diplomat said the six world powers "have never managed to get an EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany) plus three statement in Vienna," at meetings of the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which oversees cooperation by nations with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
A vigorous debate on Iran but no resolution is expected at this week's IAEA meeting of its 35-nation board of governors, with the Iranian issue expected to come up Wednesday or Thursday.
The EU-3 are expected to issue a statement of their own, with each of the six countries that have made the offer to Iran issuing individual statements.
Iranian allies Russia and China are both reluctant to threaten sanctions against Iran for nuclear work which the United States says show that Tehran wants to develop atomic weapons.
But the two nations closed ranks with the three European Union powers plus the United States in offering Iran talks on trade, security and technology benefits if it would suspend uranium enrichment, which makes nuclear reactor fuel but also atom bomb material.
Iran is currently examining the benefits package and is expected to respond by the end of the month.
"This has no influence on the overall situation," a Western diplomat said about the developments in Vienna, although this diplomat and others admitted that Iran would try to exploit any division, perceived or real, among the world powers.
But delegates from several non-aligned nations, of which China is a member, clearly do want to make a point, as they are preparing a statement that supports Iran's right to enrichment, as enshrined in the NPT.
A non-aligned diplomat said his group would "hold to a statement made by non-aligned foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur in May," that backs Iran's right to enrich.
Diplomats said Washington was fighting to prevent non-aligned states on the IAEA board from issuing such a statement, which also is an expression of non-aligned concern over a US proposal to have nuclear fuel available in a multilateral reserve so that countries do not develop the ability to enrich uranium on their own.
The non-aligned diplomat said the bloc was planning a statement that would renew a message first issued May 30 in Malaysia, when the the Non Aligned Movement affirmed the right to atomic energy and opposed any attack on nuclear facilities.
"The Americans are not happy with that statement and told that to the NAM members," the diplomat said.
The United States wanted the bloc, which numbers some 16 mostly developing nations on the IAEA board, to stick to a February IAEA resolution calling on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.
"The US point of view is that the Iranians should not be allowed to feel relaxed about enrichment, that the goal is to keep the pressure on them," the diplomat said.
A senior US State Department official said Washington did not want Tehran to press on with its enrichment activites while drawing out negotiations with the rest of the world.
With Iran being called on to answer the benefits offer within weeks, "we don't want the Iranian authorities to be considering this indefinitely," a senior US State Department official said.
"We don't want to be back into a situation we've seen before where they say they are prepared to negotiate but at the same time they just continue with their nuclear activities," the official said.
