Iran-EU Talks Ended Before They Even Began

Rooz Online:

Last week, Iran and the European troika began and ended their sensitive “exploratory” talks on Iran’s nuclear activities in Vienna, the home of the nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency. The talks, dubbed as “talks for talks”, were not portrayed as important by the Europeans while the Iranian government had publicized the event widely before Wednesday, and its officials called it’s outcome a success after they ended. READ MORE

The conservative and pro-government Kayhan newspaper called the meeting a success by virtue of the size of Iran’s delegation which for the first time matched the number of participants to the number of the European counterparts. While in the past five members attended from each country, turning the European team into fifteen members and the Iranian one into five, this time Iran matched their total members. Even Kayhan had nothing to write about the contents of the talks and instead focused on circumstances.

The United States surprisingly too announced its satisfaction with the Iran-EU talks, and supported them. The European governments had warned Iran not to miscalculate the situation, and consequently pave the way for a UN Security Council referral of Iran’s nuclear dossier, which includes non-compliance of the NPT as reported by the IAEA.

While Iranian officials publicly state that they are not worried about being referred to the UN Security Council, their actions and measures are aimed at avoiding such a recommendation by the IAEA, which could result in international sanctions and other diplomatic measures against Iran.

Javad Vaedi, the deputy official for Ali Larijani who is still viewed as the official chief negotiator said after the round, “At the talks, each side presented its views.” He added that any judgment on the results was premature at the time. Other diplomatic observers had said before the talks that any breakthrough or even success during the talks was unlikely, given the deterioration of relations between Iran and the international community during the recent weeks, when Ahmadinejad called for the destruction of Israel and called the Jewish Holocaust a myth. European governments had expressed their hope, before the talks, that Iran would accept or at the least discuss the option of processing uranium in Russia, as had been aired as a possible solution to the impasse in the talks. It is noteworthy that Iranian officials have not completely ruled out this possibility and have only said that they had not received any official offer in this regard. The same officials had told Iranian newspapers that the full nuclear cycle had to be carried out in Iran without exception.

It is because of the impasse that the new German Foreign Minister said that Iran’s nuclear issue had turned into the world’s most important problem, while requesting that Tehran restart its talks with the IAEA. He also criticized president Ahmadinejad for his comments on wiping off Israel from the map of the world, while warning it not to misjudge the nuclear situation.