|
EU-Iran nuclear dialogue to resume but hopes dim |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 22 December 2005 |
 Reuters - European powers revive dialogue with Iran on Wednesday over
suspicions it is secretly trying to make nuclear bombs, but weeks of
tension have diminished hopes they will make headway in defusing the
crisis.
Confrontation rather than compromise has been brewing after
declarations from Iran that the Holocaust is a myth and Israel should
be wiped out, and a European Union accusation on Tuesday that Tehran
has serially violated human rights at home.
The Islamic republic's increasingly vocal hostility toward the Jewish
state and commitment to developing sensitive technology that could
yield ingredients for nuclear weaponry have stoked Western concern
about its atomic programme.
Tehran says it aims only to generate more electricity for an
energy-hungry economy. But it dodged U.N. nuclear inspectors for 18
years until 2003 and the West says its cooperation since has fallen
short of what is needed to regain diplomatic confidence.
Wednesday's meeting between Iran and Britain, France and Germany in
Vienna will be "talks about talks" -- exploring whether any basis
exists for resuming negotiations on the future of Iran's nuclear
activity, frozen by the "EU3" last August.
"We won't reopen negotiations, we will only listen to what the Iranians
have to say, especially about research and development," said an EU3
diplomat, alluding to centrifuge machines capable of enriching uranium
to arms-grade level.
"We will see whether what they say to us in private is any different
from what they have been declaring in public, to see if there is wiggle
room for resuming negotiations."
EU diplomats said the likely outcome would be a decision, taken back in EU capitals, on whether to meet again in January.
But Tehran's unswerving rejection of compromise proposals to have its
uranium purified by others abroad, to minimise chances of it grasping
the highly complex means to make bombs, has depressed optimism about a
diplomatic resolution.
IRAN REJECTS "THREATS"
"Threats and unilateralism will be futile and rather make the situation
more difficult for negotiators of both sides," influential ex-Iranian
president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Tuesday, alluding to EU
demands that Tehran abandon uranium enrichment in return for political
and economic incentives.
"The correct procedure is to continue nuclear talks with patience with
the aim of confidence-building. The negotiators engaging Iran should
approach the issue with good intentions,"" the official news agency
IRNA quoted him as saying.
Chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani signaled before the new
talks that Tehran would pursue approval for enrichment, suspended under
a 2004 Paris accord which the EU maintains should be inviolable.
"If that's their only agenda, more dialogue will make little sense. The
problem is, Iran's hardliners were encouraged to believe they could
inch forward toward enrichment when they managed to restart uranium
processing without provoking a referral to the U.N. Security Council,"
another diplomat said.
In August the EU3 halted two years of negotiations for "objective
guarantees from Iran to end "dual-use" nuclear work after Tehran
resumed "conversion" of uranium ore, the first stage of the nuclear
production cycle.
But subsequent U.S.-EU moves to send Iran's case to the Security
Council for possible sanctions stumbled on resistance by Russia, China
and developing nations on the board of the watchdog International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The IAEA board opted in November to put off any referral to give time
for promoting an EU-backed proposal for Russia to enrich Iran's uranium
under a joint venture.
But Tehran has rebuffed the idea and interest in it seems to have waned
in Moscow, which has major energy and arms links with Iran including a
$1 billion nuclear reactor under construction and a $1 billion package
of missiles and other hardware.
Room for conciliation at Wednesday's talks seemed to narrow further
with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust
and the West's furious response, including talk in Germany of
retaliatory travel and trade bans.
Some analysts believe that if dialogue runs aground again, the way
would be cleared to an emergency IAEA board session and vote to put
Iran in Security Council hands. But Russia and China could veto
sanctions as permanent powers on the Council.
|
English
Francais
Deutsch
Italiano
العربيّة
