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World's top diplomats to take long view on Iran at Berlin talks
By Deborah Cole
AFP
BERLIN
Petroleumworld.com 03 30 06Top diplomats from the world's most powerful countries will gather in Berlin Thursday to map out a long-term strategy on how to contend with Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which could be used to build a nuclear bomb.
The meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany comes amid progress at the United Nations on a statement urging Iran to abandon sensitive nuclear activities and allow international inspections.
Thursday's gathering will bring together the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Russia, the United States and Germany with Chinese deputy foreign minister Dai Bingguo and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
A diplomatic source said the aim of the gathering was to express the "international community's grave concerns about Iran's nuclear program but also its unity" in its approach to Tehran.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington, which has voiced impatience over the slow pace of talks on the UN statement, expected the meeting to look beyond the current negotiations.
"I think the focus will be on the medium to long-term issues about how to get Iran ... back into the mainstream of the non-proliferation framework and how to get it to roll back its program," he said.
China said the Berlin talks would be a key step in efforts to settle the stand-off with Iran.
"The six-nation meeting is an important part of the efforts of the international community to properly resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through negotiation," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.
"China will be open to any suggestion that is helpful to the proper solution of the Iranian issue through negotiation."
On Tuesday, UN diplomats reported headway on a watered-down statement on Iran that could be approved by the full 15-member Security Council, including the five veto-wielding permanent members.
"We have reached agreement on the bulk of the text and there was movement on all sides," US ambassador John Bolton said. "We are very close. It's a very satisfactory text. We have been incredibly flexible."
Bolton said further progress in New York could give a boost to Thursday's talks.
"Our hope still would be to reach agreement tomorrow (Wednesday) so the ministers in Berlin can focus on the future and the next steps," he said.
Britain and France, the co-sponsors of the statement, circulated the new draft three weeks after International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Mohamed ElBaradei sent an assessment report on the Iranian nuclear program to the Security Council.
The latest draft calls upon Iran to meet IAEA demands and "underlines the particular importance of re-establishing full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, to be verified by the IAEA."
The new text also includes vague language that the Council "recalls its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security".
This was seen as bid to break a deadlock with Russia and China, which have opposed language that would even hint at punitive measures against Iran, an ally and key trading partner.
Russia stepped up its own efforts Tuesday to resolve the crisis, calling on Iran for a straight answer to Moscow's standing offer to resolve the standoff by undertaking uranium enrichment on Iran's behalf.
"Iran must give an unambiguous agreement or refusal to this offer so that all the worries in the international community are resolved," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
Diplomacy has reached a critical point since Tehran announced in January it was resuming sensitive research on uranium enrichment that it had suspended for two years.
The United States and its allies believe Iran's civilian nuclear program hides an effort to develop weapons. Tehran insists its research is peaceful.
Germany, France and Britain have pursued three years of inconclusive negotiations to coax Tehran off its nuclear program in exchange for economic incentives.
AFP 29 03 06 0946 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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