UNITED NATIONS – Now that the U.N. atomic watchdog agency has agreed to report Iran to the Security Council, diplomats have vastly different notions about how the body should be involved in negotiations to make sure Iran is not trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

The five permanent council members are split, with the United States, Britain and France hoping to pressure Iran into backing down with the ultimate threat of sanctions.

However, China and Russia do not want to incite Tehran and would prefer that the council play a limited role. The Iranian allies want the International Atomic Energy Agency to keep the lead in handling Iran.

The Iranian government on Sunday ended all voluntary cooperation with the agency, saying it would start uranium enrichment and reject surprise inspections of its facilities. Uranium enriched to a low degree can be used for nuclear reactors, while highly enriched uranium is suitable for warheads.

However, in an apparent reversal, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the government was open to negotiations on Moscow’s proposal that Iran shift its plan for large-scale enrichment to Russian territory in an effort to allay suspicions. A day earlier, an Iran representative at the agency meeting said that proposal was “dead.”

For the U.S.-led faction, the agency’s decision Saturday to report Iran represented a great success. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton had pushed for Iran to be brought before the council since his days as U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security from 2001 to 2005.

“It inevitably changes the political dynamic when their nuclear weapons program has been considered in the Security Council, which is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security by the U.N. charter, rather than in a specific agency of the U.N. system,” Bolton said Friday.

“The Iranians know full well what they’re doing, which is trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capability, and I understand why they don’t want people talking about it in the full light of day.”

In recent days, the diplomatic debate at the United Nations on the issue has focused on two words – “reporting” Iran to the council or “referring” it. The distinction reflects a fundamental difference in view.