EU Accepts Iran's Call for Fresh Talks

Parisa Hafezi, Reuters:

Britain, France and Germany agreed on Sunday to hold talks with Iran on resuming negotiations which broke down in August about the country's disputed nuclear programme, a spokesman said. "I can confirm that a letter has been written by the three foreign ministers offering to have talks about restarting the negotiations on the nuclear issue," a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said in Barcelona, where Blair was attending a Euro-Mediterranean summit.

Earlier Iran's official IRNA news agency said ambassadors of the so-called EU3 countries handed over a letter accepting a resumption of the talks in December, quoting a statement issued by Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

However, an EU official in Barcelona, Spain, said the Europeans had only agreed to exploratory talks to see whether there were grounds for resuming formal negotiations.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani wrote to the so-called EU3 this month, calling for the resumption of talks.

The Europeans have previously said formal negotiations on long-term co-operation could only resume if Iran halted uranium ore conversion and resumed a full suspension of activities related to uranium enrichment.

"We are not calling for a formal session of negotiations, but for talks with them to sit and look at it," the official said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board decided on Thursday not to refer Iran to the UN Security Council in order to give time to try to broker a compromise.

RUSSIAN PROPOSAL

An EU diplomat in Tehran told Reuters the EU3 letter said talks could only resume if Iran were ready to discuss a Russian proposal, backed by Washington and the European Union.

The plan enables Iran to maintain a civilian nuclear programme but uranium enrichment, the most sensitive stage of the nuclear fuel cycle that can be used to make fuel for bombs, would be transferred to Russia under a joint venture.

However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi reiterated on Sunday that Iran's right to a full nuclear cycle on its soil was non-negotiable.

"We will only review those proposals which include mastering the nuclear fuel cycle inside Iran," Asefi told a weekly news conference. READ MORE

He said that Iran had not received a formal proposal from Russia but if received would study it.

Diplomats and intelligence officials told Reuters last week that Iran was preparing to start enrichment at its underground plant in Natanz, suspended under a November 2004 deal with Britain, France and Germany.

Asefi rejected the report, saying western media were "fabricating news" to pressure Iran to abandon its programme, as the United States and other Western countries had been trying to convince Tehran to give up potentially weapons-related work.

"It seems they want to solve Iran's nuclear issue through media ... But we prefer it to be solved through talks," Asefi said.

(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Barcelona)