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MOSCOW, Feb 21: Iran showed few signs on Tuesday that it was ready to strike a deal with Russia that could allay fears it wants nuclear arms and avert possible UN sanctions.
After two days of talks in Moscow, Russian and Iranian negotiators said they planned more discussions this week on a Russian proposal to enrich uranium for Iran, seen as a way to ensure Tehran cannot divert nuclear fuel into bomb-making.
But the two sides appeared far apart, with Iran’s foreign minister ruling out any return to a moratorium on uranium enrichment, which Russia has repeatedly demanded.
“We discussed a joint formula and we will continue talks,” said Ali Hosseinitash, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security, who led his country’s delegation in Moscow.
“Our assessment of this offer is positive,” he added.
The Russians were more circumspect, with foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin saying only that Moscow’s proposal had been examined in detail and that more talks were planned.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia’s atomic energy agency Roastom, is due to travel to Iran on Thursday.
Kamynin, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency, said Moscow had again stressed that Iran must restore the enrichment moratorium. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said this was out of the question and Tehran would press ahead with its nuclear work with or without the Russian plan.
“Returning to the suspension of our nuclear activities is not on our agenda,” Mottaki said on his return to Tehran after talks on the nuclear issue with EU officials in Brussels.
US officials suggest Iran is discussing the Russian plan merely to gain time, a view shared by many Russian commentators.
“Their aim is to haggle, to put off as long as possible the hour when sanctions from the international community become unavoidable,” wrote the daily Izvestia.
Tehran has said it will consider a joint venture with Russia and possibly others to enrich uranium for power stations, but reserves the right to pursue enrichment at home as well. It says it wants nuclear fuel only to produce electricity, not bombs.
POSSIBLE SANCTIONS: Iran may face action by the UN Security Council after Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, formally reports on Tehran’s nuclear programme at a March 6 meeting of the watchdog’s governing board.
He is expected to circulate his report to members of the 35-nation board on Feb 27 so they can digest its conclusions.
Diplomats say they doubt the Security Council will rush into sanctions, which Russia, China and other countries oppose.
It may first reiterate IAEA demands for Iran to answer questions still outstanding after three years of investigations and then consider expanding the agency’s inspection powers.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Iran to change tack to stave off punitive measures. “We do not rule out the possibility of economic sanctions completely,” he said. Germany and other European countries have hardened their stance on the Iran nuclear issue after repeated calls by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the destruction of Israel.
Russia and China, which could veto any move by the United States and its European allies to impose sanctions on Tehran, share concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but do not want to sacrifice their commercial interests in the Islamic Republic.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman again urged Iran to restore a freeze on uranium enrichment activities to create the conditions for a negotiated solution.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said it might be hard for Moscow to resist calls for UN sanctions unless Iran resumes the moratorium it abandoned last month.
Analysts and European diplomats in Tehran said Iran’s tough line was a ploy to draw Washington into the nuclear talks.
“They know that the only way to address the issues they really want addressed, such as security concerns, is to talk to the Americans,” said a European diplomat who said he had been told of the gambit by a senior Iranian official.
Iran’s leaders, who want guarantees against any US attack on a country listed by President George Bush as part of an ‘axis of evil’, may believe the time to force the issue is now.
“They know that the Americans were not going to give up until they had sent Iran to the Security Council,” said an Iranian political analyst.
“So they figured it was better to go to the council now, with America still struggling in Iraq and oil prices high, than say in two years when America may be in a stronger position.” —Reuters
