Authored by European sates on the Security Council, the draft text is the start of a chain of events towards the first action against Iran’s nuclear program, diplomats have told AFP.
The 15-member Council is set to meet next week in New York in response to Iran's defiance of a call by the UN’s nuclear police, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to suspend work on uranium enrichment.
Tehran resumed enrichment in February after it bowed to international pressure and halted it in October 2003 in a confidence-building bid to show it does not seek nuclear weapons.
Security Council members will submit drafts before agreeing on a presidential statement that will lead to actions, but as yet this draft does not mention sanctions.
However diplomats have said sanctions were never going to be the first Security Council measure, and expresses the "conviction that . . . a negotiated solution can be found that guarantees Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes."
US and Russia at odds
Meanwhile the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted the Iran must now go before the Security Council, flatly ruling out a Russian call for international talks outside the world body.
Russia, a key trading partner of Iran, has attempted to reach a compromise that would see Iran jointly enrich uranium on Russian soil for Iranian nuclear fuel.
It would ensure that the sensitive nuclear processes that could create atomic weapons would be kept from Iran.
But Tehran has repeatedly refused to give up enriching uranium on its own stating that it was their right to develop a nuclear program.
Draft details
The draft begins: "Security Council action is necessary to reinforce the authority of the IAEA."
It says the Security Council should "call upon Iran without delay: to re-establish full, sustained and verifiable suspension of all enrichment related and reprocessing (for plutonium) activities."
The proposed text says the Vienna-based IAEA should "report to the Council within 14 days on the implementation by Iran of the actions it has requested."
The first action is expected to be the issuing of a nonbinding presidential statement calling Iran to order.
A Western diplomat said the United States, Britain and France were expecting to receive reactions to their draft from the Russians and Chinese.
The five nations are the permanent Council members, and have veto powers.
"We would want the Council to react rapidly, working closely to maintain a strong international consensus, and sharing views with partners," the draft said.
IAEA
The IAEA has also called on Iran to fully cooperate with its three-year investigation of Iran's nuclear work.
The West is suspicious of the Iran’s nuclear activities and has raised questions about its development of the nuclear fuel cycle as well as research, projects and documents.
The draft text calls on the Council to "express serious concern" about Iran's possession of a document on casting uranium metal into hemispheres as this part would be "suitable only for military purposes."
The draft restates IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's assertion in his report sent to the Council "that the IAEA is not in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran".