Iran and the European Union (EU) on Friday wrapped up the fourth round of nuclear negotiations, but what has emerged important is a statement made by the EU on the possible referral of Iran's case to the UN Security Council.

As negotiators of the two sides were haggling intensely in Geneva over Iran's sensitive uranium enrichment, a report signed by foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany in Brussels warned that Europe would support the referring of Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council if the talks failed at last.

This has been the toughest message from the European side since Iran downright suspended its highly sensitive uranium enrichment last November, marking that Europe has been closer to Washington on Iran's nuclear case.

Analysts believed that behind the EU's hardened stance there was not only its impatience about Iran's consistently uncompromisable position on the EU proposal of halting the work of building nuclear fuel cycle.

Europe's tilted attitude is firstly an immediate countermine against Iran's recent aggressive and challenging declaration that it was not afraid of the referral.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said on Sunday that Iran would "not be concerned" if the country's nuclear case was submitted to the UN Security Council.

"If the United States, Europe or any other country thinks that by making such threats the Islamic Republic may ignore its legitimate rights, it is making a big mistake," Asefi said.

Asefi's remarks were believed to provoke the EU a lot, which had made all-out efforts to persuade the United States to slow down its pace of pushing the referral. US President George W. Bush's voiced willingness to cooperate with the EU on Iran's nuclear issue came after his visit to Europe in late February.

Additionally, the EU's report also grumbled at the slow pace of the bilateral talks, the first time that the broker of the Iranian nuclear issue explicitly made such a complaint.

The anxiety of the EU underlined the presumption that Bush's softened position was just a wait-and-see trick, behind which analysts believed that the EU and Washington had reached an agreement about the choice of referral after diplomatic ways were exhausted.

Several hours after the EU's statement and the conclusion of the nuclear talks, the United States made two simultaneous announcements, which could also prove that Washington and Europe had come to behave concertedly.

Bush said that he was pleased that the EU is "speaking with one voice" with Washington, while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the United States has been ready to offer Iran economic incentives.

With the collaboration across the Atlantic Ocean, Tehran has to deal with the mounting pressure in the coming months.

Source: Xinhua