VIENNA, March 7: Stiff US opposition and a refusal by Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment appeared on Tuesday to doom a Russian compromise designed to head off UN Security Council action on Tehran’s atomic programme.
The rift emerged as the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met in Vienna to consider Iran’s programme, which Tehran says is for energy but the West fears is hiding a covert drive for the atom bomb.
The row hinges on whether Iran should be allowed to do small-scale research work on enriching uranium, which is used as fuel for nuclear reactors but can — in highly refined form — be the explosive core of a bomb.
Iran is ready to hold off on industrial-scale enrichment for two years, a diplomat said, but refuses to suspend small-scale work believed to have less of a proliferation risk.
Under Moscow’s plan, Tehran would eventually be able to do research on the enrichment process, but without gaining the technology it needs for large-scale enrichment for weapons use.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday in Washington that his country had made no ‘compromise proposal that would allow Iran to enrich uranium, even in small quantities.
“There is no compromise to the Russian proposal,” Mr Lavrov said following talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, which were dominated by mounting tensions over Iran’s nuclear programmeme.
Mr Lavrov was believed to be referring to the fact that Russia would at first insist on full suspension of enrichment by Iran, in order to start talks. But eventually the deal could lead to Iran doing research on the strategic process.
Iran views research work as involving up to 3,000 centrifuges, the machines which enrich uranium, but experts say that is an industrial-level figure.
The United States restated its view that Iran had already ‘crossed the international red line.
“We’ve made it very clear, as have many in the international community, that the regime must suspend all enrichment activity,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters in Washington.
“It cannot be allowed to pursue enrichment in any capacity or on any scale that would allow the regime to develop technologies needed to develop nuclear weapons.”
Mr McClellan said that after the IAEA meeting, Washington expected the nuclear dossier to move to the UN Security Council.
The IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors is due to hear a report on Iran on Wednesday.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had said at the start of the board meeting that he was hopeful of an agreement over the crisis, which has accelerated since the watchdog first reported Iran to the Security Council on Feb 4.
The board refrained from referring the matter to the council at the time, leaving a month open for diplomacy until last week, when Mr ElBaradei sent an assessment report to the world body.
The IAEA could first adopt a ‘presidential declaration urging Tehran to heed its calls to suspend enrichment and cooperate with inspectors, diplomats said, with sanctions coming as a later step.
But Mr ElBaradei spoke of a possible deal in around a week on the thorny issue of research-level uranium enrichment.
Resolving this issue would open the way for Iran to restart talks with the EU-3 — Britain, France and Germany — on guaranteeing it is not seeking nuclear weapons.
Iran’s talks with the European troika broke off in August when Iran resumed some enrichment activities. It began small-scale actual enrichment last month.
A top Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, called on Tuesday for a ‘political and rational solution to the nuclear crisis, but stressed his country could not accept demands to abandon sensitive atomic work.
CHINAS ADVICE: China urged Iran on Tuesday to cooperate with the IAEA, while calling on all sides involved in the crisis to exercise restraint.
“There is still time for a settlement of the issue within the framework of the IAEA,” Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said. —AFP
