A Daily Briefing on Iran: Iran's Nuclear Team Fails to Keep a Date With the U.N.

Elaine Sciolino, The New York Times:

Iran threw negotiations over its nuclear program into disarray on Thursday, abruptly canceling a high-level meeting with the United Nations' monitoring agency in Vienna. The leader of Iran's negotiating team was said to be returning to Tehran.

The unexpected turn of events stunned and frustrated officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency and foreign diplomats, who scrambled to make sense of Iran's decision. The meeting had been scheduled so Iran could explain its decision to restart nuclear research and development on Monday. READ MORE

"There was no explanation," said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the agency. "We're still seeking clarification."

One possible explanation is that Iran has decided to defy the rest of the world and plunge ahead with nuclear activities, which risk international censure or sanctions and could shatter a 14-month agreement with France, Britain and Germany under which Iran agreed to suspend most of its nuclear work.

Another explanation is that in the face of strong international criticism, Iran's negotiating strategy is in chaos. Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power last year in Iran, officials who were part of its national security apparatus, including its nuclear negotiating team, have been replaced with people who are driven by hard-line views.

Certainly Iran's failure to explain its intentions erodes trust in the country as a reliable negotiating partner. In its letter to the atomic energy agency two days earlier announcing its research plans, Iran gave assurances that it intended to carry out the work under the supervision of agency inspectors, and asked the agency to take the necessary steps for the research to start again.

That position raised speculation that Iran was trying to test whether it could proceed with its nuclear program and stay within the boundaries of its international legal obligations, even if that violated its agreement with the Europeans.

In an address in Qum carried on state television on Thursday, Mr. Ahmadinejad repeated his assertions of Iran's intention to carry out nuclear research, saying some people "have said the Iranian nation has no right to nuclear research, but they should know that the Iranian nation and government will defend the right to nuclear research and technology, and will go forward prudently."

The negotiating team, led by Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy chief of Iran's atomic energy agency, had been expected to meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday with the director of the United Nations agency.

At first, the Iranians said in a telephone conversation that they would be late. Then, in a later telephone call, they canceled the meeting. Mr. Saeedi was returning home, the Iranian delegation told the agency.

That move suggested that there would be no explanation of Iran's intentions before it resumes its research on Monday.

American and European officials and some experts at the atomic energy agency said they were concerned that the research could focus on small-scale enrichment experiments, which could help advance Iran's knowledge about how to produce nuclear fuel - either for civilian plants or, at higher enrichment levels, for weapons.

In Washington on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran not to resume nuclear research, saying, "They shouldn't do it because it would really be a sign that they are not prepared to actually make diplomacy work."

She expressed confidence that the United States would succeed in taking Iran's case to the Security Council for an unspecified punishment should negotiations fail. However, the United States has thus far failed to persuade Russia and China to seek punitive measures, a difficult step because there is no clear-cut violation of Iran's obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Iran's decision in August to restart uranium conversation activities in Isfahan violated the European agreement. But inspectors from the United Nations agency were there to break the seals on the equipment and have been monitoring the activities, which do not violate Iran's obligations under the treaty.

One official close to the talks said the Iranians were believed to have withdrawn because they had been caught off-guard by the uncompromising stance of Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency's director, in messages and in a meeting on Wednesday with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations office in Vienna, Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh.

The official declined to be identified by name or even national origin because the official is not authorized to speak for attribution.

Dr. ElBaradei and his colleagues have harshly criticized Iran's decision to restart nuclear research, warning Iran of potential consequences of its action.

Among the issues outstanding are Iran's refusal to allow inspectors access to a site in Tehran called Lavisan-Shian, which was bulldozed by Iran in 2004 before it could be inspected. The agency wants to interview scientists who worked there and determine whether they were conducting nuclear research.

Another mystery is how Iran first obtained centrifuges used to enrich uranium. The agency is also still not convinced by Iran's explanations about the sources of both low- and high-enriched uranium found in Iran.

The Iranian delegation was apparently unprepared to respond to questions like these on Thursday, the official close to the talks said.

A number of Iranian officials, including President Ahmadinejad, have boldly asserted Iran's right to conduct nuclear research and its intention to proceed as scheduled, despite warnings from that to do so would risk punitive measures.

Iran's right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful energy purposes is extremely popular in Iran, and the president's remarks on Thursday were greeted with cries of "Ahmadinejad, our hero, we support you," Reuters reported from Tehran.