After meeting in Berlin on Thursday, the foreign ministers from the three EU heavyweights proclaimed their efforts to convince Iran to give up its controversial nuclear ambitions were at an impasse. Germany, Britain and France had been hoping to convince Tehran not to resume nuclear research at uranium enrichment facilities. Iranian officials, who contend they only want to use their nuclear program for civilian purposes, broke seals at the plant -- placed there by the IAEA with Iran's permission two years ago -- on Tuesday.

"From our point of view, the time has come for the UN Security Council to become involved," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told journalists after meeting with his French and British counterparts. "Our talks with Iran have reached a dead end."
The ministers, joined by the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, did not specifically spell out what steps should be taken against Tehran, but they called for a special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency to decide whether the Iranians will be referred to the Security Council. Only then would Iran face the threat of sanctions.

Following more than a year of sputtering negotiations by the EU three, the United States has increasingly leaned on Europe to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for sanctions or other measures should Tehran continue not to comply with the international community. Washington does not hide its suspicions that Iran wants to build an atomic bomb. Until Thursday, the Europeans insisted on talks to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear program or at the very least submit to IAEA conditions. Active negotiations between the EU and Iran have been suspended since August and were only made more difficult by inflammatory comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and questioned whether the Holocaust actually took place.

John Bolton, US ambassador to the United Nations, who was also in Berlin on Thursday told journalists that it was true Washington and Europe had not always agreed on the right course to pursue, but said worries about Tehran's intentions were well justified.

"This argument by the Iranians that they are simply pursuing civilian nuclear power is completely bogus," he said. "Over the past couple years there have been some areas of what I would call tactical disagreement between the two sides of the Atlantic, but throughout that there has never been disagreement on the fundamental point which is that Iran should not get a nuclear weapons capability."