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BERLIN/BRUSSELS, May 18: European nations want to offer Iran security guarantees as a key incentive to freeze its nuclear enrichment programme, but US officials say Tehran can expect no non-aggression pledge from Washington.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is aimed at the peaceful generation of electricity. But Western countries are convinced Iran is gradually developing the capability to produce enriched uranium fuel for atomic bombs, not just nuclear power stations.
Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has urged Washington and the European Union to consider Iran’s precarious security in an unstable Middle East — tacitly acknowledging that Iran’s atomic programme is a deterrent.
“Iran is surrounded by countries that have nuclear weapons,” the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said recently. “The only solution is a package that should ... include security issues.”
An EU trio of Britain, France and Germany is preparing just such a deal, including a European light-water nuclear reactor and a security component if Iran halts fuel enrichment.
The offer will be discussed in detail at a meeting of senior EU, US, Russian and Chinese officials next week in London.
EU officials say security guarantees are the major sticking point affecting their ability to produce a credible package.
European diplomats involved in the process say only the United States can guarantee Iran’s security. But Washington refuses to do so.
REGIONAL SECURITY: One well-placed EU official said the Europeans want to offer to cooperate with any regional security mechanism that might be created by Iran and its Gulf neighbours.
Another acknowledged that the political and security aspects were the trickiest. “That’s the area where it’s most difficult to come up with something unanmbiguous, to put something concrete on the table,” the official said.
Several diplomats said Washington was considering an indirect security guarantee, which one EU diplomat said might involve ‘a US blessing for EU guarantees of Iranian security”.
Even that would be a major step for a reluctant Washington.
US officials denied they were thinking of any kind of security guarantees for Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
“I’ll let others speak for themselves. But from the United States, that’s not on the table,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
John Bolton, Washington’s U.N. ambassador, has said the United States could only revive ties with Tehran, as it did with Libya this week, if Iran gave up enrichment and ‘terrorism’.—Reuters
