London: The five permanent members of the UN Security Council reached surprising agreement on Tuesday that Iran should be brought before that powerful body over its disputed nuclear programme.
IAEA will outline its stand on the nuclear dispute as well as the action it expects of Iran but will submit a formal report on Tehran's activities only in March.
Sanctions are not imminent, with the P-5 also agreeing that the Security Council should wait until March to take up the Iran case giving more time for diplomacy to diffuse the crisis.
China and Russia, longtime allies and trading partners of Iran, agreed to a statement calling on the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to transfer the Iran dossier to the Security Council, which could impose sanctions or take other harsh action.
The statement came after talks held at the home of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that spilled over into the early hours on Tuesday. The IAEA, which meets in Vienna on Thursday, has already found Iran in violation of nuclear obligations and issued a stern warning to Tehran in September.
Though the US, Britain and France have been pressing to hand Iran's case to the Security Council, it had been unclear until now whether China and Russia would support such a move.
The foreign ministers from the five nations said, however, the Security Council should wait until March to take up the Iran case, after a formal report on Tehran's activities from the atomic agency.
(With AP inputs)
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