Iran Says Near Deal With EU on Resuming Nuclear Work

Louis Charbonneau, Reuters:

Iran said on Saturday it was close to an agreement with France, Britain and Germany that would enable it to resume sensitive nuclear activities that have been frozen for months. READ MORE

The three European Union powers persuaded Iran to suspend activities related to uranium enrichment late last year to reassure the world it was not seeking nuclear arms, as Washington alleges. Iran said this week it would soon resume such activities.

The three EU foreign ministers sent a letter on Wednesday to Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani warning him that breaking the suspension now would end talks and that they would then back U.S. moves to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

But Sirus Naseri, a senior Iranian negotiator in the EU talks and Iran's chief delegate to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said Tehran was not far from a deal with the Europeans that would allow it to resume work at a uranium processing plant.

"We are not at all far from having a working agreement on the resumption of Isfahan, as long as there is a firm intention (to reach an agreement) there on the side of the Europeans," Naseri told Reuters after a series of meetings in Vienna with U.N. and European officials.

EU negotiators -- who said at the beginning of the month they were far from a deal and that the talks were about to collapse -- were not immediately available for comment.

The facility at Isfahan converts raw "yellowcake" uranium into processed uranium gas. This gas can then be fed into centrifuges that spin at supersonic speeds to refine it for use as fuel in nuclear power plants or weapons.

Backed by Washington, the EU has demanded that Iran make the suspension permanent in exchange for economic and political incentives. But Iran insists it has a sovereign right to a uranium fuel programme which it will never abandon.

PRESSURE "FROM U.S. HAWKS"

The main obstacle to an agreement with the Europeans was pressure coming from "more hawkish elements" in the administration of U.S. president George W. Bush, Naseri said.

European diplomats close to the talks have said some French officials would be willing to allow the Iranians a limited enrichment programme that would be closely monitored by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But Germany does not like the idea and Britain categorically rejects it, they said.

Naseri also said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's threat this week to help Washington bring Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council if Tehran resumed any activities related to enrichment was "not helpful and can only add to the tension".

"If the threats are addressed to the hawks in the U.S., we let them go by. But if they reflect policy, the EU should think twice. All we wish to do is exercise our rights. There is no justification to send Iran to the Security Council," he said.

In the letter to Rohani, the Europeans suggested a meeting of their foreign ministers and Rohani to find a way of breaking the deadlock in the talks and maintaining the freeze on enrichment.

Naseri said Tehran had decided to postpone formally informing the IAEA of its intention to resume enrichment-related work while Iran and the EU discussed the details of the meeting.

"While we are considering this meeting, we are postponing the delivery of a formal note announcing the resumption (of enrichment-related work)," he said.

Diplomats close to the IAEA said the meeting would probably take place late next week in Geneva or Brussels. The Iranians proposed holding the meeting in Tehran but the Europeans want it "on their turf", a diplomat said.