Iran
will not limit nuclear talks to EU-3
By
Siavosh Ghazi
AFP
TEHRAN
Petroleumworld.com
02 22 06
Iran on Tuesday announced it would not limit nuclear talks to
the EU-3 of Britain, France and Germany, saying it attached greater
weight to negotiations with Moscow on a Russian compromise plan.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also vowed Iran would not
go back on its resumption of small-scale uranium enrichment which
has infuriated Western countries and led to Tehran facing the
threat of UN Security Council action.
"Our contacts with the European Union will for the moment
not be held only with the EU-3, but also in a unilateral manner
with the different countries of the European Union," Mottaki
told reporters following talks on Monday with EU officials in
Brussels.
Iran had frozen uranium conversion and enrichment activities as
a goodwill gesture during talks with the EU-3 but the already
torturous negotiations collapsed when it resumed conversion and
then small-scale enrichment.
Now it appears that Iran has decided to channel its diplomatic
efforts elsewhere, finally closing the curtain on over two years
of on-and-off talks with the EU's big three.
Mottaki's comments came as officials held talks in Moscow on a
Russian proposal for Iran to enrich uranium on an industrial-scale
in Russia -- which ended Tuesday with no breakthrough but Iranian
officials expressing satisafaction.
While attaching little weight to negotiations with the European
Union, Mottaki said Iran was putting the most emphasis on its
discussions with Russia over Moscow's proposal.
"At the current time the European Union has said it is ready
to accept an eventual agreement between Iran and Russia,"
he said.
"This means that if there is a need to have official discussions
with the European Union it will be to complete the Russian proposal."
The UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) on February 4 voted to report Iran to the Security Council,
but left a one-month window for diplomacy.
Iran's resumption of uranium enrichment activities intensified
Western accusations that Iran is using its civilian nuclear energy
programme as cover for weapons development. Tehran insists its
atomic drive is peaceful.
However Mottaki made clear that there was no chance of Iran going
back on its resumption of small-scale uranium enrichment at home
for research purposes.
"At the moment we are at the beginning of the road for enrichment
in the laboratory. Any new idea for negotiations need to go from
this point."
Enrichment is a process that involves feeding uranium gas through
cascades of centrifuges. When purified to low levels, the result
is reactor fuel, but the process can be extended to make the fissile
core of a nuclear bomb.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on a visit
to Japan that diplomacy can still work in resolving the Iranian
nuclear standoff even though economic sanctions cannot be ruled
out.
"The issue of a military option does not arise," Steinmeier
told a news conference. "We must show imagination and take
advantage of different diplomatic possibilities."
"I do not believe economic sanctions are imminent. But we
cannot completely rule out imposing sanctions," he said.
China, a key player and a permanent Security Council member, also
urged Iran to end its uranium enrichment activities and focus
on making progress in the talks with Russia, a foreign ministry
spokesman said.
AFP
02 21 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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