VIENNA (Reuters) ? The 35-nation board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog looked set Friday to censure Iran over findings that it has sought to develop atom bombs, after the six big powers overcame divisions on how to best deal with a defiant Tehran.
Iran showed no sign of backing down in the protracted dispute over its atomic activities, threatening to take legal action against the International Atomic Energy Agency for issuing a hard-hitting report about Tehran's nuclear program.
Last week's IAEA report presented a stash of intelligence indicating that Iran has undertaken research and experiments geared to developing a nuclear weapons capability. It has stoked tensions in the Middle East and redoubled calls in Western capitals for stiffer sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Iran says it is enriching uranium only as fuel for nuclear power plants, not nuclear weapons. It has dismissed the details in the IAEA report obtained mainly from Western spy agencies as fabricated, and accusing the IAEA of a pro-Western slant.
Iran's ambassador to the Vienna-based IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, accused the agency of releasing the report early to the United States, Britain and other countries. Some of its contents were leaked to Western media before release on November 8.
"This is a clear violation of the (IAEA) staff regulation, the oath taken by the Director General upon his assumption of the post, as well as the spirit and letter of the Statute of the IAEA since all member states have to be treated equally," he said in a letter to IAEA chief Yukiya Amano.
"My government reserves its legitimate rights ... to seek damages, monetary and otherwise, from the IAEA for any injury to persons and damages to property in my country that may arise from your unjustified, unfair and politically motivated reports and decisions that may be taken on the basis of such reports."
He appeared to be hinting at speculation that Israel, which sees Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat, might launch pre-emptive attacks on Iranian atomic sites in the absence of diplomatic negotiations to resolve the dispute.
Soltanieh's letter, dated November 16, was distributed to media in Vienna Friday, shortly before the governing board of the IAEA was due to start a debate on a draft resolution on Iran.
POWERS VOICE "INCREASING CONCERN"
The six powers spearheading diplomacy on Iran -- the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany -- this week ironed out a joint resolution in intense talks and submitted it to the board, a mix of industrialized and developing countries.
The fact that it was backed by all six big powers virtually guaranteed it would win wide support in a vote expected later on Friday. One diplomat said the resolution had won 18 additional sponsors, bringing the total to a clear majority of 24 states.
But it will not placate those in the West and in Israel, Iran's arch-foe, who had hoped Amano's report would bring about concrete international action to corral Tehran, such as an IAEA referral of its case to the U.N. Security Council.
There has been concern that if the powers cannot close ranks to nudge Iran into good-faith negotiations, then Israel will attack it, although military action would probably only delay, not scuttle, any Iranian move to "weaponize" nuclear material, given the wide dispersal and fortification of its atomic sites.
Israel is widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal to deter numerically superior enemies, but has never confirmed or denied it.
Earlier this week, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned on the eve of talks with his Israeli counterpart that a military strike on Iran could harm the world economy, saying the U.S. focus remained on diplomatic pressure and sanctions.
Diplomats described the powers' resolution text as a compromise between Western states, which would have preferred sharper language, and Russia and China, which resisted out of concern not to burn all bridges for talks with Tehran.
The text expressed "deep and increasing concern" about Iran's nuclear program and called on it to open up fully to U.N. inspectors, according to a draft seen by Reuters.
It further urged Iran "to engage seriously and without preconditions in talks" to address nuclear concerns and asked Amano to report back to the board's next meeting in March.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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