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Iran refuses to give up nuclear research
European Union negotiators yesterday walked away empty handed from talks with Iran two days before its nuclear programme is due to be discussed by the United Nations nuclear watchdog.The eleventh hour meeting was attended by a senior Foreign Office official, the French and German foreign ministers and the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, at Iran's request. The Iranians reiterated their demand to be allowed to continue "laboratory research" into uranium enrichment, a key technique Iran would need to master before it could build a bomb. Iran's demand is regarded as unacceptable by the United States, Europe and Russia. On Monday, Iran's behaviour will once again be under review by the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors in Vienna. A month ago, the same board showed unusual unity in voting to report Iran to the UN Security Council - a first step to possibly imposing sanctions on Iran. But, at the same time, the board gave Iran one last month to prove it was suspending uranium enrichment work and to return to the negotiating table in good faith. That deadline ends on Monday. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, expressed disquiet at the prospect of Iran's case heading to the Security Council, saying such referrals had a tendency to escalate crises. Europe had ruled out the use of force, Mr Lavrov said, but not the United States. Russia has offered Iran a face-saving route out of the current stand-off, pretending to believe Iranian promises that it is only building a civilian nuclear power programme. Russia has offered to enrich uranium for that peaceful programme on its own territory, then export it to Iran - but only at the level of enrichment suitable for power generation. A bomb would require much more concentrated fuel. However, talks on that offer this month have failed, in the face of Teheran's insistence on maintaining a research capability for enrichment. That insistence and other evidence have led France to conclude that Teheran has already "taken the decision to put itself in a position to build a bomb", as one senior French official put it. France believes Iran already has all the materials needed to build a nuclear weapon and wants to master the techniques for building one, the official told a group of reporters. France also believes that Iran began talks with Europe in 2003 as a tactical ruse, while it was patiently and secretly acquiring weapons technology. In early 2005, by French assessment, Teheran decided that the talks with Europe, involving a suspension of enrichment research and regular IAEA inspections, were holding back their work. It is believed that later last year the newly elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, decided to start a run towards making a bomb. Britain now finds itself in the unusual position of being the most dove-like of the three European powers, insisting on the merits of continued dialogue for the sake of dialogue, while France and Germany argue that Iran seems determined on arming with nuclear weapons. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-03-04 |
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