Iran, EU Edge Closer to Nuclear Deal

George Jahn, New Press:

Iran and the European Union inched toward a possible compromise Friday that diplomats said would allow Tehran to run a scaled-down uranium enrichment program despite its potential for misuse in building atomic weapons.

The development was significant because the Europeans and the United States have for years opposed allowing Iran any kind of enrichment capability - a stance that Russia, China and other influential nations have also embraced. READ MORE

Top European officials publicly described the talks in Vienna as failed because of Tehran's refusal to reimpose a freeze on enrichment.

''Unfortunately we were not able to reach an agreement,'' French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters, saying the EU continued to demand ''full and complete suspension'' of uranium enrichment and related activities that have fed fears Iran may be pursuing nuclear arms.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the meeting ended ''without achieving a result.''

But diplomats familiar with the talks told The Associated Press that after months of deadlock, the two sides explored plans that essentially would allow Iran small-scale enrichment after reimposing its freeze for an undefined period to rebuild international trust.

Tehran has insisted on its right to conduct enrichment, saying it wants only to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity. But enrichment also can create fissile material for warheads and a growing number of nations share U.S. fears that is Iran's true goal.

Russia has recently sought to persuade Iran to move its enrichment program to Russian territory, which would allow closer international monitoring.

A compromise could leave Washington facing near isolation diplomatically after months of building a consensus that on Feb. 4 led the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board to put the U.N. Security Council on alert about Iran's nuclear program.

The IAEA's board is to discuss the issue again beginning Monday.

Compromise would allow Iran, the EU and Russia to say they had achieved their main goals.

Iran would be able to run a program it insists it has a right to under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if it is only on a research basis instead of full-scale enrichment.

The Europeans could tolerate small-scale enrichment if Iran first agrees to their key demand - a freeze to re-establish international confidence.

Moscow could benefit diplomatically and economically if Iran accepted its proposal for a joint enrichment program to produce Iran's reactor fuel in Russia.

One of the diplomats, who insisted on anonymity in exchange for divulging the substance of the confidential discussion, said the impetus for the compromise came from Moscow, which has taken the lead in talking to Iran about its nuclear ambitions since talks with the EU collapsed late last year.

He said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would discuss the compromise plan in Washington next week.

The small-scale enrichment envisioned under the compromise would deprive Iranians of the chance to run the thousands of centrifuges needed to enrich sufficient amounts of uranium to build multiple weapons. But it would allow them to perfect the methodology they would need if they later decided to start industrial scale enrichment.

Experts estimate Iran has enough black-market components in storage to build the 1,500 operating centrifuges necessary to make the 45 pounds of highly enriched uranium needed for one crude atomic bomb.

A report last week by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran was testing centrifuges, which spin uranium gas into enriched uranium, and had plans to begin installation of the first 3,000 centrifuges late this year.

Iran restarted some enrichment last month, two years after voluntarily freezing the program during talks with Germany, Britain and France. Those talks unraveled late last year after Iran refused to give up enrichment in return for Western economic help.

While Russia backed alerting the Security Council to Iran at the last IAEA board meeting, it remains reluctant to press for tough action against Tehran, an economic and strategic partner.

Lavrov said Friday that the council's five veto-wielding members were not united.

''There is no collectively discussed and agreed strategy of what we all will be doing in the Security Council if the issue is there,'' Lavrov told reporters, hinting at his country's opposition to increasing pressure on Tehran.

Lavrov also said before Friday's talks that a deal with Iran was still possible before the IAEA meeting.

''There always is an opportunity to reach an agreement,'' the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying in Moscow.

In Vienna, ElBaradei said he was ''hopeful'' of a negotiated solution after meeting with Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, while the Iranian representative to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, described the talks with the Europeans as ''fruitful.''

If this report is accurate, it would mean the Iranian hard-liners were correct in their assessment of the Europeans.