When Iran rejected the EU proposals aimed to end the crisis surrounding the country's controversial nuclear program over the weekend, the move was seen as a major setback for international diplomacy . On Monday, the government in Tehran announced that it had resumed uranium conversion at its nuclear facility in Isfahan, which closed down in 2004 after an international outcry. With the rejection and the start of uranium enrichment, the stage is set for a major international crisis.

While Tehran clings to the argument that it is pursuing nuclear power purely for peaceful ends, the matter has been handed over to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is in the process of putting together a report it will then give to the UN Security Council. It will ultimately be up to the council to decide how to proceed against Iran. The country hid its nuclear program from IAEA inspectors for 18 years, and many suspect that the regime's motives in doing so show its nuclear ambitions are anything but peaceful. High on the list of possible next moves for the UN are sanctions against Iran, but there is some doubt that China and Russia would ultimately vote for any sort of embargo.

On Tuesday, German commentators focus on Europe's role in the current debacle. Britain, France and Germany, under the banner of the EU, led the negotiations with Iran, with the US playing bad cop somewhere off stage. The breakdown of those negotiations -- which carries the possibility of an end to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty -- is seen as a blow to Europe's status as the world's diplomat. Three of Germany's main papers offer three distinct views on Tuesday, alternately blaming Western powers and Iran's mullahs for the current crisis.

The right-wing daily Die Welt argues that in dealing with Iran, world powers need to differentiate between the ruling mullahs and the country at large. "The fact that fundamentalists are pulling power toward themselves doesn't mean that Iran is ready to plunge itself and the world into a nuclear adventure. The regime isn't comprised of suicide bombers -- on the contrary, the people want long lives of peace and prosperity." Right now, one of the best ways to get the world's attention is simply through nuclear power: "The Iranians have seen from the example of North Korea that the rest of the world eats out of your hand once you've got the bomb. They still have no reason to give it up."

But, the paper writes, the mullahs may have miscalculated on one score: There's no certainty that Russia or China will vote against an embargo. "And the embargo would above all hit those who voted for the new president, the country's underclass. It would show, once again, that Islamist governments aren't in the position to fulfill their social promises. The revolutionary leader can safely ignore this -- the president can't."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung argues that the EU and the US have gotten themselves -- and the world -- into this mess, and they need to come up with some real security offers to Iran in order to get out of it again. The crisis is growing increasingly dangerous, the paper writes, and "now there is the threat of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) collapsing for good, and what's worse, a military conflict with Tehran. Its victims, destruction, and effects on terrorism -- as well as on regional and world politics -- could put the Iraq war in the shade." The EU's recent proposals to Iran didn't fail solely because the mullahs are playing political games. "Those mainly responsible of this dangerous development are the US, with the EU in tow. With their politically wrong, untenable and from the outset completely unrealistic demand that Iran permanently halt uranium enrichment, Washington and Brussels have driven themselves into a dead end."

There are various ways out: "For one, if the US and EU would rely on the strengths of the NPT instead of further abetting its destruction. IAEA director Baradei made concrete suggestions to this end in January. The implementation of these ideas would vastly improve international control over the atomic program in Iran and all other signatory nations." Also, "the US and the EU should finally take Iran's objective security problems seriously and do something to help solve them: With reliable non-aggression guarantees from Washington as well as active commitment to a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Unacceptable as Iranian nuclear weapons would be, the Israeli arsenal is equally unacceptable."

The rejection of the EU proposal has put the West and the Middle East on a "confrontation course," writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in a front-page editorial. "The coarse, chilly way in which Iran reacted to the European proposals in the atomic dispute spoke volumes. Tehran is very prepared for confrontation -- whatever the calculus may be." The Iranian government is now in a good position to get what it wants, no matter what the UN decides. "The regime is very sure of its position and trusts that the decisive powers in the council will follow their own interests -- commercial, economic, political -- and therefore will have a hard time coming up with a unified, workable stance." And, "if the Security Council actually decides to invoke sanctions, then Tehran could make threats regarding its potential to sabotage Iraq or some other part of the Middle East. The conflict over the Iranian atomic program has reached the level of a crisis."