"The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) decision to report Iran to the UN Security Council will seriously increase the risk of escalating tensions in the region and is counter-productive," added the British peace activist. In an interview with IRNA on Tuesday, Horseman said that representatives of his organization in different countries are doing all they can to convince governments of the mistake they are making of referring Iran to the Security Council. "Reporting Iran to the UN has created a vacuum of confidence building, a situation that IAEA head ElBaradei said he was intent on avoiding," said the disarmament campaigner. "Board members supporting the EU-3 draft resolution have effectively shot themselves in the foot. The Iran crisis has been brought closer to the brink." Emphasizing on the similar approaches undertaken by the US and UK in the months before the military attack on Iraq in 2003, Horseman said that by rushing into conclusions the international community will not have the chance to resolve the situation through diplomatic means. "There will be no winners in this dispute. Iran has made it quite clear that they will now severely restrict inspections and no longer comply with requests to reveal information above and beyond what is legally required under existing NPT obligations," Horseman argued. He added that all diplomatic initiatives will also be dead in the water, escalating further tensions on all sides. "It is clear that the heightened mistrust on both sides will make resolution of this crisis all the more difficult," the activist stressed. Horseman said the real solution to the crisis is a meaningful "nuclear free zone" in the Middle East including the Zionist regime, adding that this would be "a vital first step towards removing all nuclear proliferation risks in the region." He said that Greenpeace is opposed to any nation acquiring atomic weapons and even nuclear technology and believes that the current crisis is borne out of the clear contradiction in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "The treaty obliges signatories to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons while at the same time encouraging their access to nuclear technology that can be diverted to produce those weapons," the activist maintained. PIN/IRNA