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Iran Could Be Allowed to Continue Enrichment
U.S. and European officials have said that a package of incentives intended to persuade Iran to curb its controversial nuclear activities could allow Tehran to continue domestic uranium enrichment, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, June 6). “We are basically now saying that over the long haul, if they restore confidence, that this Iranian regime can have enrichment at home,” said one U.S. official. “But they have to answer every concern given all that points to a secret weapons program.” A senior Iranian official said that the offer presented yesterday seemed to have value. European and U.S. diplomats said they were relieved by such moderate statements from Tehran. “Our first aim was already achieved because they didn’t reject” the offer, one European diplomat said. U.S. President George W. Bush said a reaction yesterday by top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani to the proposal — noting both its “positive steps” and “ambiguities” — “sounds like a positive response to me.” “I want to solve this issue with Iran diplomatically. … We will see if the Iranians take our offer seriously. The choice is theirs to make,” Bush said. One diplomat said the offer was the result of weeks of negotiations in both Washington and Tehran aimed at avoiding further confrontation. “Each side has taken a more serious look at what the other wants and how compromise can be reached,” said a Western diplomat. A U.S. official said ultimate potential for acceptable Iranian uranium enrichment was “a very important part of the deal, and it’s what will allow Iran to accept it.” “Iran always spun previous offers as an attempt to keep it from exercising its rights to enrich. Now that is explicitly not the case,” the official said. Formal negotiations could begin next month, following negotiations among European, Iranian, Russian, Chinese and U.S. officials on the details of the talks, diplomats said. “They need time to swallow and actually digest not only the proposal but also the American moves, especially the latter,” said a European diplomat in Iran. “The most significant part of the package is that the Americans said they’re willing to sit at the table. Everything else, I think, is minor compared to that” (Vick/Linzer, Washington Post, June 7). ABC News reported yesterday that the proposal includes potential guarantees for Iran’s “territorial integrity” — possibly reversing U.S. refusals to rule out military action if Iran does not cooperate with international mandates, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse I/ChannelNewsAsia.com, June 7). Diplomats said today that the world powers have backed away from demands that Tehran institute an extended uranium enrichment and reprocessing moratorium, the Associated Press reported. The new demand is for an enrichment suspension lasting for the duration of renewed negotiations. Iran would be allowed to conduct uranium conversion, the diplomats said (George Jahn, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, June 7). Western diplomats said today that the United States is not likely to directly provide U.S. technology if Iran accepts a light-water reactor as part of the deal, Reuters reported (Reuters I, June 6). Diplomats and experts said yesterday that Iran’s measured response to the proposal potentially opens the way to negotiations, AFP reported. “At least the proposal was not flatly rejected,” as was a similar offer presented by European Union negotiators in August 2005, a Western diplomat said. “The possibility that there will be negotiations in the future looks likely but the sticking point is going to be: Will Iran turn off its centrifuges (which make enriched uranium) before sitting at the table? And they’re not there yet,” the diplomat added. A senior European diplomat in Vienna said Iran made “a very good and positive reply but also a very clever one because it opens the way for a dialogue.” “There is a way that each side can get into talks, meeting its bottom line, without losing face,” said nonproliferation analyst Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse II/iafrica.com, June 6). German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today that the terms of the incentives package for Iran are negotiable once it halts enrichment, Reuters reported. “This is an offer to kick off negotiations but there must first be a suspension of (enrichment) activities implemented by Iran,” she said. “It is a broad and comprehensive offer. I believe it is a huge chance and I hope that we’ll do a bit of negotiating,” she said (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters II, June 7). Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today that Iran would have to violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty for Moscow to support U.N. sanctions, AFP reported. “Any measures that could be supported by Russia in the Security Council can only be in situations when Iran starts to act in contradiction to its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,” he said. “There is no discussion [now] of sanctions against Iran in the Security Council,” he added (Agence France-Presse III/Interactive Investor, June 7). The Nuclear Suppliers Group, a 45-nation organization that controls the world’s nuclear-related trade, called on Iran to “cooperate fully” with the International Atomic Energy Agency, AFP reported. “The participating governments expressed full support of the continuing effort by the IAEA to fulfill its mandate in Iran, and they called on Iran to cooperate fully with the agency in this matter,” the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released late Monday, following a meeting of the organization in that country (Agence France-Presse IV/IranMania.com, June 6). Austria announced yesterday that a shipment of dual-use equipment to Iran was intercepted at Vienna’s international airport last summer, AP reported. The gear — a German-manufactured “friction tester” for determining the sensitivity to friction of various substances — was found in early August 2005, said Interior Ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia (Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, June 6).
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