VIENNA, Sept 11: Iran has set a list of conditions, including no UN actions against Tehran, in offering to consider a two-month suspension of uranium enrichment, a western diplomat said on Monday.
In giving details of a closed-door meeting between top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and European foreign policy chief Javier Solana last weekend in Vienna, the diplomat said Iran ‘had a long list (of conditions) including (a) complete and total halt in activity at the UN Security Council, an absolute stepping down from going for sanctions and that Iran would have the right to nuclear fuel technology on its soil’.
“In return for this, Larijani said the Iranians would consider, consider, not actually carry out, a two-month halt in enrichment. It was all very conditional,” the diplomat said, in relating a briefing from Mr Solana.
The details on the Larijani-Solana talks come with the United States warning on Monday at a meeting of the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna that it is still seeking sanctions against Tehran.
Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the IAEA, said Washington welcomed ‘progress’ made in the Larijani-Solana talks at the weekend in Vienna but that as long as Iran has failed to suspend uranium enrichment ‘we will be looking to move forward in the (United Nations) Security Council with the sanctions regime’.
Mr Schulte told reporters that if Iran did suspend enrichment this would have to be “not for one or two months” but for “as long as negotiations proceed” and without preconditions.
The Iranian offer first revealed on Sunday had raised hopes of a breakthrough in the international standoff over its nuclear ambitions but the diplomat said that Mr Larijani’s conditions dashed these hopes.
The conditions are ‘unacceptable’ to the six world powers offering Iran talks on a package of trade and other benefits because they would guarantee Tehran the right to sensitive nuclear fuel work and protect it from any punitive UN action, said the diplomat.
Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States want a full and unconditional suspension of uranium enrichment to start the negotiations, the diplomat said.
“There was not any new offer on the table from the Iranians. It was all incredibly conditional and all temporary,” the diplomat said, adding that the suspension would come before negotiations.
The six nations threaten UN sanctions if Tehran does not comply.
Iran refuses, however, to suspend enrichment and defied a UN Security Council’s Aug 31 deadline for it to freeze the strategic nuclear fuel work.
The diplomat said: “The condition laid out in 1696 (the Council resolution setting the deadline) is really a simple one, a sign of good faith to stop their enrichment.”
An EU diplomat confirmed that Mr Larijani had made the offer to Mr Solana on Sunday in Vienna.
“He offered a two-month suspension but there were no details and it was not clear when it would start,” the diplomat said.—AFP