Iran faces stark choices

By Jim Muir BBC Tehran correspondent

The walkout by Iran's representative at the IAEA meeting in Vienna was a clear sign of Tehran's anger over the deadline resolution.

Iran's envoy accused the US of seeking to re-design the Middle East

Iranian officials had already signalled that if the ultimatum went ahead, they would be obliged to review their relationship with the nuclear watchdog.

Only a few hours before the resolution went through, the influential and generally pragmatic veteran Iranian former President, Hashemi Rafsanjani, warned that if the IAEA's governing board took what he called an "inappropriate decision", it would be responsible for the consequences.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi had said that if what he called "the extremists" prevailed in Vienna, Iran would be obliged to review the status and scope of its co-operation with the IAEA.

None of this amounts to a clear commitment to revoking that co-operation, or to scrapping Iran's adherence to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), although the implication is there.

Now that the time for rhetoric is past, Iran has some serious decisions to take, and time is running out.

No middle way

It can dismiss the resolution as a capitulation by the agency's board to the pressures exerted by the United States and its allies - suspend co-operation with the IAEA, and start along a path that would take it into a similar international position to that of North Korea.

Find out more about key nuclear sites in Iran

In graphics

That is a move already advocated by some of the most hard-line right-wing commentators here.

It would clearly be a huge blow to the detente policies of President Mohammad Khatami and the reformists.

Alternatively, Tehran could swallow its pride, meet the agency's requests, open up fully to the inspectors, and prove that it really is not trying to make secret weapons as it insists.

There is not much of a middle way between these stark choices, and a lot will depend on which way Iran decides to go - not least, in terms of the state of play in the ongoing struggle between reformists and hard-liners.