US Offer Would Allow Tehran to Enrich Uranium in Russia

Philip Sherwell, Telegraph UK:

President George W Bush has backed a plan to allow Iran to enrich uranium in Russia. The sudden change in tactics over Teheran's controversial nuclear programme has angered hawks in Washington and surprised European diplomats. READ MORE

Mr Bush, who met President Vladimir Putin at a Pacific Rim summit on Friday, told him he would support Moscow's plan to offer Iran the chance to conduct nuclear enrichment at facilities in Russia. The US was previously against any deal that would allow Iran to enrich its own uranium.

The latest proposal would allow Teheran to convert uranium if subsequent enrichment, which could have weapons applications, took place only overseas, under Russian control.

It is the first compromise offer in which America has shown any interest and is designed to develop a joint front with Russia, a long-term ally of Iran.

Washington previously adhered to a strict "hands-off" approach to any negotiations with the Islamic regime, including the offer that Teheran rejected earlier this year from the so-called EU3 of Britain, France and Germany.

The tactic was seen as a key part of the American "bad cop" diplomatic stance, compared with the more conciliatory "good cop" European approach.

The strategy will alarm administration hardliners - most notably the vice president, Dick Cheney, and John Bolton, a former number three at the State Department and now ambassador to the United Nations - who wielded the upper hand on foreign policy during Mr Bush's first term.

They maintain that any offer to Teheran is a sign of weakness, effectively rewarding long-standing Iranian deception over its nuclear programme and buying the clerical regime more time to develop clandestine weapons.

The significant switch in America's position comes even though Iran, which Western intelligence is convinced is secretly seeking to develop nuclear arms, admitted last week that it had resumed conversion of uranium, the stage before enrichment, in defiance of an international ban.

The regime also admitted to the International Atomic Energy Authority that it had possessed a document containing partial instructions on the construction of a nuclear bomb, believed to have been obtained through the black market weapons network of rogue Pakistani atomic scientist AQ Khan.

The fresh diplomatic manoeuvring seems certain to mean that America and EU3 will not try to have Iran referred to the UN Security Council over its forbidden nuclear activities at Thursday's meeting in Vienna of the IAEA. Until the middle of last week, America intended to push for referral.

European officials, who back the Russian initiative as part of a wider set of proposals to end the nuclear stand-off with the Islamic republic, have been surprised by how openly America has entered the process.

"It may provide a way out," Stephen Hadley, Mr Bush's national security adviser, said last week.

The shift in outlook is believed to be largely down to the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who is one of Mr Bush's closest confidantes. She has promoted a less confrontational foreign policy since taking up her position in January.

American security hawks, already alarmed by a recent compromise deal with North Korea over its nuclear arms programme, are watching with growing frustration.

"Iran is in breach of its previous commitments to the EU3 and has restarted conversion," Danielle Pletka, the vice-president of the powerful conservative think-tank the American Enterprise Institute, told the Sunday Telegraph. "These were supposed to be the 'red lines' on which we would not compromise.

"But what do we do when the Iranians flout them? We offer them a compromise that will allow them to enrich uranium, even if it takes place in Russia. It sends all the wrong messages to Iran."

However, a European security analyst described the American approach as a "smart decision" on two fronts.

"If you believe that there is any chance of a deal, then this is an important step," he said.

"And if you don't think that a deal is likely and want to build the widest possible coalition for action against Iran, this also helps by involving the Russians in the process."

Russia has previously signalled that it would not support any sanctions against Iran.

The EU3 and the State Department think that that stance may change if it experiences its own snubs by the Iranians, who have shown no interest in the Russian deal.