Iran threatens U.S. "harm and pain" for role in U.N. referral

VIENNA, Austria -- Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" Wednesday for its role in hauling Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program and for plans to push fellow council members to impose tough measures against the Islamic republic.\nInternational Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei also said the United States should negotiate directly with Iran if negotiations reach the stage of focusing on security guarantees to Tehran in exchange for concessions on its nuclear program.\nThe end of Wednesday's meeting of the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency set the path for Security Council action. ElBaradei said his staff would send his report on Iran's nuclear program to the council by Thursday.\nThe United States and its European allies said Iran's nuclear intransigence left the world no choice. The Security Council could impose economic and political sanctions on Iran.\nWednesday's meeting was in effect the last step before the Security Council begins considering Iran's nuclear activities and international fears they could be misused to make weapons. It began with both Iran and the nations opposing its enrichment plans sticking to their positions.\n"The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a senior Iranian delegate to the IAEA. "But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll."\nHe did not elaborate but suggested Iran was awaiting additional American moves.\nBut diplomats accredited to the meeting and in contact with the Iranians said the statement could be a veiled threat to use oil as an economic weapon.\nIran is the second-largest producer within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and a boycott could target Europe, China or India.\nThe White House dismissed the rhetoric out of Tehran.\n"I think that provocative statements and actions only further isolate Iran from the rest of the world," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with President Bush to the Gulf Coast. "And the international community has spelled out to Iran what it needs to do."\nJohn Bolton, America's ambassador to the United Nations, said Iran's comments showed how much of a menace it was.\n"Their threats show why leaving a country like that with a nuclear weapon is so dangerous," he said.\nAt an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Iran Petroleum Minister Sayed Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh deflected questions about Iran's threat.\nHe later sought to ease worries, telling reporters: "So far there's no reason to reduce exports. Iran has no intention whatsoever of reducing its oil exports."\nOil supplies are tight worldwide and prices already are high. Although the United States does not buy oil directly from Iran, any Iranian effort to tighten world supplies would effect oil prices in the United States.\nIran also has leverage with extremists in Iraq, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Islamic militant group Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in January. Both groups are classified by the U.S. State Department as terrorist organizations.\nOn Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld accused Iran of dispatching elements of its Revolutionary Guard to stir trouble inside Iraq.\nIran's statement was unusually harsh, reflecting Tehran's frustration at failing to deflect the threat of Security Council action in the coming weeks. It also followed tough words from Vice President Dick Cheney, who indicated Washington would do its utmost to use the council to pressure Iran to compromise.\n"The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose meaningful consequences," Cheney said in a Tuesday speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington.\nTehran maintains its nuclear program is for generating electricity.\n"Our nation has made its decision to fully use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and all have to give in to this decision made by the Iranian nation," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in Iran. "We have made our choice."\nIran also attacked "warmongers in Washington" for what it said was an unjust accusation that Tehran's nuclear intentions were mainly for military use. It also suggested America was vulnerable, despite its strength.\n"Surely we are not naive about the United States' ... intention to flex muscles," the statement said. "But we also see the bone fractures underneath."\n-- Associated Press reporters Nick Wadhams at the United Nations and Palma Benczenleitner contributed to this report.