Iran Stands Firm in Face of United US, EU Approach

Paul Hughes, Reuters:

Iran insisted Saturday it would never give up its nuclear fuel program despite new incentives and threats from Washington and the European Union. "Deadlock in nuclear talks due to European extortion," the hardline Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper proclaimed a day after the EU's three biggest powers said they would take Iran to the UN Security Council if it resumed uranium enrichment.

"The problem is that the Europeans should give up their illogical stance," Sirus Naseri, a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, told state television.

"What we have said is that our fuel production will continue."

Iran has frozen enrichment, a process that can be used to make bomb-grade fuel, while it tries to reach a negotiated settlement about its nuclear program with the EU big three Britain, Germany and France.

Tehran says its nuclear facilities will only be used to generate electricity and never diverted to weapons production.

Washington, in a policy shift, gave practical backing to the EU's diplomatic approach on Friday.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington would allow Iran to begin talks on joining the World Trade Organization and would consider letting it buy civilian airline parts if it ceased all activities that could produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons.

WTO membership and aircraft spares are two key incentives which the EU hopes will persuade Iran to scrap enrichment for good. The EU was unable to deliver these incentives without U.S. support.

SHORT OF EXPECTATIONS

But Naseri told Reuters on Friday the incentives were "too insignificant to comment about."

On Saturday he told state TV: "What they (the EU) have offered so far is way short of our expectations ... The more guarantees they give us, the more they can expect from us." read more

Iran says it can offer the world "objective guarantees" that it will not make atom bombs. These would include measures such as allowing intrusive U.N. inspections of its nuclear sites.

But Washington and the EU say the only acceptable guarantee is for Iran to scrap its nuclear fuel production plans altogether and rely on the supply of reactor fuel from abroad.

Hassan Rohani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said a key Iran-EU meeting on the nuclear issue would be held in Paris on March 23.

"It will be a very important session and we hope to reach an acceptable conclusion through legal and diplomatic means," Jomhuri-ye Eslami quoted him as saying.

"The continuation of the talks between Iran and Europe will depend on the March 23 meeting," he said.

Iran has warned that it feels progress in the EU talks has been slow and it may pull out and resume enrichment if the EU drags its feet.

But most diplomats and analysts believe the threat of a Security Council referral will be enough to keep Iran at the negotiating table for at least another three months.