|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
EU Powers to Talk With Iran Before IAEA Meeting
Iranian and European Union officials plan to meet ahead of Monday’s International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governor’s meeting on Iran’s controversial nuclear activities, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 1). Tehran requested talks between top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and British, French and German foreign ministers, said a European diplomat. He added that European Union leaders remain firm that Iran must end all uranium enrichment activities. “We are in a listening mode — nothing more,” said another European official (Judith Ingram, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, March 2). The meeting is scheduled for tomorrow in Vienna, Reuters reported (Reuters/Yahoo!News, March 2). Meanwhile, Larijani warned that U.N. Security Council action against his country would kill negotiations on Russia’s proposal to enrich uranium on behalf of Iran, AP reported. “America is lying, trying to destroy the Russian proposal,” he said today. “The Americans’ insistence on handing over the Iranian nuclear dossier to the U.N. Security Council means the destruction of the Russian proposal.” Larijani said the Iranian side put forward a “package proposal” to Russia yesterday and that negotiations would resume at an unspecified date. He said the two sides had “achieved mutual understanding” on some issues (Ingram, Associated Press I). Russia, however, acknowledged that the talks were deadlocked, AP reported. “There was a constructive and serious discussion, but many questions remain unresolved,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency (Henry Meyer, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, March 2). Additional details of the Russian proposal emerged yesterday, Agence France-Presse reported. A facility in Russia would enrich uranium for nuclear fuel and ship the material to Iran on the condition that Iran reinstate a moratorium on enrichment and that it not acquire new enrichment technology. Russia is prepared to place a time limit on the duration of the joint venture, according to AFP. Russia is also offering to sell Iran the S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile defense system, conditional on reinstatement of an enrichment moratorium. The two sides are in advanced talks on the sale, AFP reported. Russia has offered to build more nuclear power plants and expand cooperation on Iran’s nuclear power program, on condition of an enrichment moratorium and ratification of the additional protocol to Iran’s IAEA safeguards agreement. It has also offered to help develop Iran’s vast natural gas reserves, to construct a new “north-south transport corridor” to enhance trade, and to discuss enhanced security guarantees for Iran. Tehran has already been granted observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security group led by Russia and China, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse/IranMania.com, March 1). Elsewhere, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said that “after trying to resolve this issue through negotiations and through a good and reasonable proposal from Russia, we’re having to go to the (U.N.) Security Council,” AP reported today (Meyer, Associated Press II). British Ambassador to the United Nations Emyr Jones Parry said he expects Iran’s activities to be reported to the Security Council at next week’s IAEA meeting. “My expectation is that the board will reaffirm its view that Iran ought to comply with the wishes of the board,” Jones Parry said. “It would surprise me if as a result of that meeting the issue was not reported to the Security Council” (Ingram, Associated Press I).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
