Iran EU Nuke Talks Ended With No Result

Safa Haeri, Iran Press Service:

Last round of nuclear talks between Iran and three European nations, namely Britain, France and Germany ended without producing any tangible result, negotiators told Iran Press Service.

"The fact that we are beginning to reach a clear framework (of negotiations) is a sign that we have taken a step forward and that we expect a probable agreement", Mr. Cyrus Naseri, one of Iran´s top negotiators told reporters, hinting once again that abandoning enriching uranium was “out of question”.

Earlier, and before the start of the negotiations in Geneva, Hojjatoleslam Hassan Rohani, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council in charge of the nuclear affairs had told reporters that some progress had been made in talks with the so-called “Big 3”, but had warned that if the Europeans would insist on Iran abandoning the enriching activities, talks would be stopped.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr. Rohani warned that talks with the EU could collapse if the EU negotiators continue to demand that the Islamic Republic abandon nuclear fuel work in order to guarantee it will not make atomic weapons.

"The talks can continue if we see any progress. If not, we will end it", he said, adding, "As long as the negotiations are progressing and we don't feel that the Europeans are killing time we will continue the talks for one or two months more, but not years".

Although Mr. Rohani gave no specific details of Iran's proposed compromise ideas, but diplomats told Iran Press Service on condition of not being named that Tehran is ready for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to install monitoring devices in its uranium enriching facilities making sure that the material is not enriched more than 3.5 per cent, a degree enough for civilian purposes.

"We are not supposed to discuss them publicly but it's possible we'll solve this problem stage by stage. But they do not include any limitations on our enrichment capacity", he said. READ MORE

But according to the text, read to AFP by another diplomat close to the talks, the Iranians are proposing the "assembly, installation and testing of 3,000 centrifuges in Natanz," the site where Iran wants to build an enrichment plant and has already built a pilot project of 164 centrifuges.

Another Iranian plan is to transform the underground Natanz uranium enrichment plant into an international joint-venture under multinational ownership; Reuters quoted EU diplomats as having indicated.

"The Europeans should tell us whether these ideas can work as the basis for continued negotiations or not," Rohani said. "If yes, fine. If not, then the negotiations cannot continue", he said.

"While there is progress and we are hopeful of a rapid conclusion we will continue the talks but if we judge that the Europeans are trying to buy time, we will stop them", Rohani said.

Centrifuges, placed in sequence, refine increasingly enriched uranium, which can be fuel for nuclear power reactors but also the explosive material for atom bombs.

A sequence, or cascade, of about 2,000 centrifuges could make enough highly enriched uranium in a year to make one atom bomb, experts say.

Iran suspended uranium enrichment in November last year as a confidence-building measure to start the EU-Iran talks, which offer Iran trade, security and technology rewards if it abandons enrichment.

But the diplomat who read the text to AFP said: "This isn't a pilot enrichment plant they are seeking, it's larger than that."

If the talks fail, Washington would expect Europe to back it in bringing Iran before the UN Security Council for possible international economic sanctions. "For our dossier to be sent to the Security Council would be a great failure on the part of Europe, the IAEA, and multilateralism as a whole", Rohani told the Financial Times.

If the centrifuges that Iran wants to put into production are similar to those running empty under IAEA monitors, then this program would permit Iran to maintain a clandestine uranium enrichment program, as we have reported in the past. It is believed that the US can detect the running of such centrifuges and thus any secret Iranian enrichment program must include the continued operation of legitimate centrifuges.