EU powers said on Thursday they had agreed to last-minute talks with Iran on Friday before a UN nuclear watchdog meeting that could spawn UN Security Council steps against Tehran over concerns it seeks atom bombs.
But "EU3" diplomats held out scant hope of a breakthrough in their first direct contact with Iran since December, noting Tehran was defiantly accelerating uranium enrichment work and declining to embrace a Russian proposal to defuse the crisis.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, fresh from inconclusive talks in Moscow on an offer to enrich uranium for Iran in Russia to pre-empt diversions into bombmaking, announced he would see British, French and German envoys before March 6.
That is the date when the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors will meet to weigh a report by the IAEA chief saying essentially that Iran had ignored a February 4 board call to re-suspend enrichment work to regain world trust.
Instead Iran is test-feeding uranium gas into centrifuges, which purify it into fuel for nuclear reactors or, potentially, bombs, and plans to start installing 3,000 centrifuges later this year in a thrust towards "industrial-scale" enrichment.
Tehran denies Western suspicions of a covert bomb project and the IAEA has found no hard proof arms are being developed.
Iran says it wants only nuclear-generated electricity but it hid atomic work for 18 years and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly called for Israel's destruction.
Britain and Germany confirmed a meeting of foreign ministers with Larijani was set for Friday in Vienna at his request.
"We will listen to what Iran has to say but we have no new proposals," said a British Foreign Office spokesman.
EU3 diplomats said Larijani would be again told Iran must return to complete suspension of enrichment-related work including conversions of uranium ore, the first step in the process, to win fresh negotiations on trade incentives.
An EU3 diplomat, who like others asked not to be identified due to the subject's delicacy, said his side was "not optimistic there will be any outcome, not least because there has clearly been no breakthrough with Russia".
"We agreed to this meeting only reluctantly. But we decided to show the EU3 format is still on the table since Iran had pronounced it dead," said another EU3 diplomat in Vienna.
Larijani said Iran sought another hearing with the EU as "we believe our programmes are clear and defensible" but warned Russia's proposal would die if the Security Council intervened.
IRAN ALREADY REPORTED TO SECURITY COUNCIL: The IAEA board reported Iran to the Council on February 4 but on the condition the foremost world body on war and peace took no measures until after nuclear watchdog's session next week.
"Negotiations with Russia were constructive and effective ... (but) the Russian proposal needs to become more mature ...," Larijani told IRNA news agency, apparently objecting to Moscow's insistence Iran re-suspend enrichment work as part of the deal.
"Russia's proposal will be the first victim of referring our case to the Security Council. This move will make the situation more critical and reduce our co-operation with the IAEA."
Iranian leaders have been travelling the world trying to slow momentum towards Security Council action, hoping to capitalise on non-Western opposition led by Russia and China to imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
A State Department official said the United States would support any talks between the EU3 and Iran but added: "Of course we would be much happier if Iran chose to honour the previous agreement it had with the EU3 before it started talking about any new proposed agreements it might break in the future."
The EU3 froze dialogue with Iran in January after it broke a 2-1/2-year moratorium on enrichment activity.
IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei, who is also due to meet the foreign ministers, also welcomed the EU3-Iran meeting.
"As negotiations proceed, it will be essential for all parties to specifically address the security, political and economic issues that underlie any future comprehensive settlement," he said in a statement.
ElBaradei is concerned that engaging the Security Council may drive Iran into a corner and yield only deadlock given that veto-wielding Russia and China reject calls for sanctions.
Comments
Comments are closed.