PARIS, July 12: World powers said on Wednesday they would refer Iran back to the United Nations Security Council after Tehran failed to respond quickly enough to a package of incentives aimed at defusing a nuclear standoff.

“We have no choice but to return to the United Nations Security Council,” French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said following a meeting with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, Russia, China and Germany.

Iran was referred to the Security Council earlier this year, but work on a UN resolution, which could have opened the way to sanctions, was delayed to allow the Iranian leadership to respond to the offer of incentives.

The world powers told the Iranians they wanted a clear response to their offer before this weekend’s Group of Eight industrialised nations’ summit in Russia.

Iran has said it needs more time, promising to deliver its answer by August 22.

But the six foreign ministers in Paris said they were not prepared to give Tehran the benefit of the doubt.

“The Iranians have given absolutely no indication of their readiness to seriously discuss the substance of our proposal,” Douste-Blazy said, adding that the Security Council would seek to force Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

“Should Iran refuse to comply then we will work for the adoption of measures under article 41 of Chapter VII of the UN charter,” the French foreign minister said.

Under article 41, the Security Council could call on United Nations members to apply economic sanctions on Iran but would not endorse military action.

TEXT: Here is the full text of the joint declaration:

“On the 1st of June, we met in Vienna and agreed a set of far-reaching proposals as a basis for negotiations with Iran, stressing however that, should Iran decide not to engage, further steps would have to be taken in the Security Council. This offer was delivered to Tehran on the 6th of June. It includes offers of cooperation in the political, economic and nuclear areas which would be of significant benefit to Iran.

“Today, five weeks later, we reviewed the situation of the basis of a report by (EU foreign policy envoy) Javier Solana who has met three times with Dr (Ali) Larijani (Iran’s top nuclear negotiator).

“The Iranians have given no indication at all that they are ready to engage seriously on the substance of our proposals. Iran has failed to take the steps needed to allow negotiations to begin, specifically the suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, as required by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). We express profound disappointment over this situation.

“In this context, we have no choice but to return to the United Nations Security Council and take forward the process that was suspended two months ago.

“We have agreed to seek a United Nations Security Council resolution, which would make the IAEA-required suspension mandatory. Should Iran refuse to comply, then we will work for the adoption of measures under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the UN charter.

“Should Iran implement the decisions of the IAEA and the UN Security Council and enter into negotiations, we would be ready to hold back from further action in the UN Security Council.

“We urge Iran once again to respond positively to the substantive proposals we made last month.”—Reuters/AFP