Iran steps up pressure on EU in nuke talks-diplomats
27 Apr 2005 12:06:10 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA, April 27 (Reuters) - Iran is ratcheting up the pressure on EU giants France, Britain and Germany to accept its plan to join the world's nuclear club, European diplomats said on Wednesday.
Sharing Washington's suspicions that Iran is trying to develop the capability to produce atomic weapons, the European Union has demanded that Iran give up its nuclear fuel programme in exchange for economic and political incentives.
Iran, which insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity, says uranium enrichment is a sovereign right it will never renounce. Four months of talks have not changed Tehran's position.
Iran has taken the offensive in the talks, diplomats said.
"We are on the defensive now," a diplomat from one of the EU trio countries said about the next round of talks in London on Friday. "We are no longer talking about cessation (of uranium enrichment) but exclusively about the Iranian proposal."
He said there would be no breakthroughs at Friday's meeting though it might result in a flood of angry rhetoric from Iran, which would not get any definite response from the Europeans.
Tehran has proposed that it build up its uranium enrichment programme in stages, beginning with a small scale enrichment plant at Natanz in central Iran outfitted with 3,000 centrifuges -- machines that purify uranium for use as fuel for power plants or weapons by spinning at supersonic speeds.
The project would be closely monitored by the U.N. nuclear watchdog and would be expanded until the underground facility became a commercial-scale enrichment plant with around 54,000 centrifugues, diplomats familiar with the Iranian proposal said.
The Europeans generally dislike the idea but have agreed to consider it, even though it is unacceptable to Washington, diplomats close to the talks said. This is mainly to win time and keep Iran at the negotiating table, they added.
But one diplomat said he worried this tactic might backfire, since Iran could justifiably accuse the EU of playing games.
A plant with 3,000 centrifuges could theoretically produce enough high-enriched uranium fuel for one and a half warheads per year, nuclear experts say. However, Iran says it only wants to produce low-grade enriched uranium fuel for power plants.
IRAN THREATENS TO BREAK OFF TALKS
Iran has repeatedly threatened to break off negotiations with the EU if it does not get a firm answer about its proposal. A senior Iranian official renewed this threat on Wednesday.
"At this meeting (on Friday), Iran expects the European side's clear answer about the idea," Hossein Mousavian, a senior nuclear negotiator, told Reuters in Tehran.
He said Iran, which has frozen its enrichment programme for the duration of the talks, would keep talking if the Europeans say Iran's proposal is an acceptable basis for a future deal.
"If not, Iran cannot continue its suspension ... based on the negotiations without any tangible progress,"Mousavian said.
The Europeans expect Tehran to provoke a crisis after Friday's meeting because they will not give the Iranians the firm answer they will demand, several EU diplomats told Reuters.
But they said the talks were unlikely to break down and Iran resume enrichment. The Iranians know the EU would then support Washington's call for a referral to the U.N. Security Council, which could lead to economic sanctions, the diplomats said.
"I don't think we want anything other than for the talks to continue and I don't think Iran wants anything else either," an EU-3 diplomat said.
European diplomats also said they would try to quietly weather any "controlled crisis" the Iranians provoked, which would be more intended to show a tough face to a domestic audience ahead of Iran's June 17 presidential elections. (Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran, Madeline Chambers in London, Paul Taylor in Brussels and Jon Boyle in Paris)
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EU to ask Iran for postponement of nuclear talks
27 April 2005
VIENNA/TEHERAN - The European Union 'big three' of Germany, France and Britain are to ask Iran to postpone the resumption of nuclear talks until after presidential elections in the country slated for 17 June, it was reported on Wednesday - then promptly officially denied.
Sources in Vienna and news reports in Iran said France, Germany and Britain would formally request Iran to postpone the talks at a meeting to be held Friday 29 April in London between representatives of both sides.
The reports were however denied by EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana who said he had "no information that the meeting would be postponed" and that the next round of talks would be
held as scheduled on May 29.
EU sources said earlier that the request was being made because negotiators felt that real progress could only be made on the issue after the polls, when the balance of political power in Iran has been clarified.
The EU desire to postpone the talks was also reported in Iran by news agency IRNA, who quoted Ali Aga-Mohammadi of the Supreme National Security Council as saying that no decision had been reached on whether to agree to the request.
Last year, Teheran said that nuclear talks will end before the presidential elections and before the close of President Mohammad Khatami's tenure.
Britain, France and Germany have been spearheading talks with Teheran aimed at convincing Teheran to permanently suspend uranium enrichment in return for aid and improved economic and diplomatic relations. Enriched uranium, although used in the process of generating nuclear power, can have weapons applications.
The United States has long accused Iran of harbouring ambitions to build nuclear weapons. Teheran however maintains that its nuclear programme, details of which were first revealed in 2003, is for peaceful purposes only.
Iran has consistently refused to permanently suspend uranium enrichment but has suspended it for the duration of the talks. Chief Iranian negotiator Hassan Rohani has also expressed satisfaction with the talks' progress following the conclusion of the latest round in March. |
