Israel's power crisis spills over onto the Iran-IAEA negotiations:
Iran's abrupt no-show stuns atomic negotiators
By Elaine Sciolino The New York Times
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2006
PARIS Iran threw negotiations on its nuclear program into disarray Thursday, abruptly canceling a high-level meeting with the United Nations' nuclear monitoring agency in Vienna as the head of Iran's negotiating team was said to have returned home to Tehran.
The unexpected turn of events stunned and frustrated both International Atomic Energy Agency officials and foreign diplomats. They scrambled to make sense of the Iranian no-show at the meeting, which was scheduled so that Iran could explain in detail its formal decision to restart sensitive nuclear research and development activities Monday.
"There was no explanation," said Melissa Fleming, an IAEA spokesman, in a telephone interview from Vienna. "We're still seeking clarification."
One explanation is that Iran has decided to defy the rest of the world and plunge ahead with nuclear activities that risk international censure or sanctions and could shatter a 14-month agreement with France, Britain and Germany under which Iran agreed to suspend most of its nuclear work in return for promised rewards.
Another explanation is that in the face of strong international criticism of its decision, Iran's negotiating strategy is in disarray. Since the accession to power last year of President Mehdi Ahmedinejad, Iran's national security apparatus, including its nuclear negotiating team and dozens of its ambassadors, has been largely replaced with people who are driven by rigid, hard line views and lack extensive diplomatic experience.
The Iranian delegation, which is headed by Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of Iran's of Iran's atomic energy agency and the head of Iran's negotiating team, was expected for a meeting with IAEA director, Mohamed ElBaradei, and his Iran experts Thursday morning.
At first, the Iranians informed the IAEA by phone that they would be late. Then, in a subsequent phone conversation, the Iranians announced that the meeting was canceled and gave no indication of when or whether another meeting would take place. Saeedi returned home, the Iranian side told the IAEA.
That move suggested either that there would be no explanation of Iran's intentions before it resumes its research Monday or that Iran was rethinking either the decision itself or its timing.
American and European officials and some experts at the IAEA said they are concerned that the research and development could focus on small-scale enrichment experiments, which could help advance Iran's knowledge about how to produce nuclear fuel - either for civilian plants or, at higher enrichment levels, for weapons.
In Washington on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran not to resume nuclear research, telling reporters, "They shouldn't do it because it would really be a sign that they are not prepared to actually make diplomacy work."
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