Egypt and Saudi Arabia ask Washington not to refer the Iranian nuclear question to the UN Security Council

The request was put before the US vice president Dick Cheney in talks he held with president Hosni Mubarak in Cairo Monday, Jan. 17. Cheney’s response was not disclosed. Earlier, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov reported Moscow’s oppositions to sanctions against Iran. The UN nuclear watchdog’s director Mohammed ElBaradei was reported Tuesday as having secretly met Irans’ nuclear negotiator Ali Larajani.
debkafile added earlier: Moscow is muscle-flexing ahead of EU-Russian negotiations due to take place with Iran over a formula for Iranian nuclear enrichment in Russia, mediated by Chancellor Angela Merkel and accepted for study by Tehran. When the talks yield a proposal, it will be brought before Washington. The Kremlin is saying the threat of UN sanctions is counter-productive if the next round of diplomacy is to succeed.
The five permanent UN Security Council members meeting in London failed to agree on a referral of the Iranian case to the Security Council.
debkafile‘s nuclear experts add: As the prospect of sanctions recedes, Tehran is winning extra time from this high-powered to-ing and fro-ing to push ahead with its nuclear bomb program.