VIENNA, April 20: The United States will call for the UN atomic agency to cut off technical assistance to Iran if diplomatic efforts falter in getting Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said on Thursday.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency is not expected to meet on the Iranian issue before June, after the UN Security Council decides how it will deal with an Iranian nuclear program that the United States charges hides secret work on developing atomic weapons.

The Security Council has given Iran until April 28 to halt uranium enrichment or face unspecified consequences. IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei is to file a report by then on Iranian compliance.

Washington is pushing for economic and other sanctions but meeting resistance, notably from key Iranian allies and trading partners Russia and China.

If Iran fails to meet the deadline, the United States wants the Council to adopt a “Chapter 7” resolution which would legally oblige Iran to meet the IAEA’s calls for it to suspend enrichment and cooperate fully with an agency inspection of its nuclear program.

Enrichment is a sensitive process as it can make either nuclear reactor fuel or atom bomb material.

A Western diplomat said the United States would use the June meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors to “cut off Iran’s technical cooperation and call for an IAEA special investigation of the key unresolved safeguards concerns” about Iran’s program if the Council fails to adopt a tough resolution. Russia is wary of such a resolution as it fears this would open the door to sanctions.

ElBaradei will be filing his report to both his board of governors and to the Security Council.

Any of the 35 board members could call for a special meeting to review the report but US ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte has already told several key states that the United States, as well as EU states, do not support such a session as they do not want the board doing “anything that could prejudice or constrain United Nations Security Council action in May,” the Western diplomat said.—AFP