EU Says Iran Must Change Atomic Stance

Henry Meyer, Forbes:

Russian and Iranian officials agreed Monday to hold more talks on Moscow's offer to enrich uranium for Tehran, a compromise proposal considered a final opportunity for the Islamic regime to avoid the threat of international sanctions over its nuclear program.

The office of presidential Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, who hosted the Iranian delegation, issued a terse statement that the Russian and Iranian negotiators had agreed to continue talks, several news agencies reported. The statement did not elaborate.

The ITAR-Tass news agency said the Iranian delegation was expected to leave Moscow on Tuesday. Calls to the Iranian Embassy in Moscow went unanswered Monday evening.

In Brussels, Belgium, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said talks with Iran's foreign minister failed to make progress in resolving the West's standoff with the Islamic republic over its nuclear program.

Solana said Iran's "substantive position has not changed." Speaking after a 90-minute meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Solana said, "They have to be much more constructive." READ MORE

The Russian offer, backed by the United States and Europe, was widely seen as the last chance for Iran to address the West's concerns before a March 6 meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which could start a process leading to punishment before the U.N. Security Council.

The council has the power to impose economic and political sanctions.

But Iran has adamantly defended its right to maintain a domestic enrichment program, seen by the United States and other Western nations as a cover-up for a suspected weapons program.

Before the Moscow talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sought to lower expectations.

"Honestly speaking, we have modest expectations, but we will make every effort to avoid an escalation of the situation and the use of force," Lavrov told a government meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin in televised comments.

The top Iranian negotiator, Ali Hosseinitash, deputy secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said he believed an agreement was possible. He cautioned, however, against linking the Russian plan to demands for Iran to restore a freeze on uranium enrichment, Russian news agencies reported.

"The negotiations with Russia do not foresee any preconditions," Hosseinitash said, according to ITAR-Tass. He added that there was no link "between the moratorium on uranium enrichment and talks on the Russian plan."

Mottaki said in Brussels that Tehran was looking for a "peaceful solution" to the impasse and was ready to listen to "new ideas."

"We express our readiness for negotiations based on justice and a comprehensive compromise. We want to peacefully solve the problem," he said after talks with Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht.

"We believe that the time of threats is over. The (U.N.) Security Council should not be considered as a tool of some countries ... We are here to hear any new plans, any new proposal, any new ideas."

The Iranians have blown hot and cold over Moscow's initiative, under which Iran's enrichment activities would take place on Russian soil to ensure no uranium is diverted for nuclear weapons. Enrichment is a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.

The Russian foreign minister said Iran could conduct all nuclear activities on its own soil once the IAEA had resolved its concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.

Lavrov said last week the Russian proposal is conditional on Iran giving up all enrichment activity, including small-scale efforts it started last week. The EU and the United States also insist that Tehran reimpose a freeze on all enrichment.

Analysts said a concrete result likely would emerge from further talks later in the week, when the head of Russia's atomic energy agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, visits Iran.

Experts have said Iran would like its scientists to have access to the Russian enrichment facility and hope to retain the right to conduct part of the enrichment process at home. But former Russian Atomic Energy Minister Viktor Mikhailov told the Vremya Novostei daily in Monday's editions that the entire facility would be off-limits to the Iranians.

IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei recently suggested that the international community might have no choice but to accept small-scale enrichment on Iranian soil as a condition for Tehran to agree to move its full program abroad, a diplomat familiar with ElBaradei's position said Sunday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Iranian presidential spokesman Gholamhossein Elham, speaking in a news conference Monday, welcomed the IAEA proposal on small-scale enrichment inside Iran as a "positive step" toward resolving the dispute but said any restrictions on Tehran's right to access nuclear energy were unacceptable.