Iran, IAEA, EU Hold Nuclear Talks

A senior Iranian official held “constructive’ talks with EU and international nuclear officials Friday and Saturday, but Tehran has continued to refuse the U.N. Security Council’s key demand that the nation freeze its uranium enrichment program, wire services reported (see GSN, June 22).

Meeting Friday with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, top Iranian nuclear envoy Ali Larijani agreed to craft a “plan of action” in the next 60 days to help resolve agency questions about Iran’s nuclear program, Reuters reported.

ElBaradei said the talks were “quite satisfying,” adding that, “I hope we should be in a position in the next weeks to move forward and break the stalemate where we have been in for the last few months” (Karin Strohecker, Reuters I/Washington Post, June 22).

The new cooperation would enable agency safeguards head Olli Heinonen to visit Iran soon after he wraps up his visit this week to North Korea (see related GSN story, today).

He would discuss what the agency needs to learn in order to clear up international suspicion of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The talks would “let the IAEA get to the bottom of the issues,” said one diplomat (Mark Heinrich, Reuters II, June 25).

The day after his meeting with ElBaradei, Larijani spoke to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Lisbon.  The European Union has offered a package of economic and political incentives to Tehran in exchange for curbing Iran’s nuclear activities.  Negotiations on a long-term deal, however, have stalled because EU officials, backed by the United States, have required Iran to freeze its uranium enrichment program before talks can begin.

Solana has sought to find a way to have the discussions begin and suggested Saturday that preparatory talks would continue.

“It has been a constructive meeting. ... I have to tell you that probably in three weeks we will try to see if we can meet again,” he told reporters (Hafezi/Almeida, Reuters III/Washington Post, June 23).

Meanwhile, some Western nations have discussed easing their demand for a complete freeze to Iran’s enrichment program, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

British, French and German officials have discussed the possibility of a partial freeze, a term that remains undefined.

“Nothing is on paper,” said one European diplomat of the recent discussions (Associated Press/Los Angeles Times, June 23).

Such a shift would probably face U.S. opposition.

“I don't know where that's coming from because I will tell you that, in my conversations with my counterparts, everybody understands the importance of and believes strongly in the importance of carrying out the ... Security Council mandate for suspension,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday. 

“My counterparts, when I talk with them, are not interested in lowering the bar,” she said.

“I don't know what partial suspension means," she added.  "It doesn't seem to me to be a very wise course” (Reuters IV, The Star, June 24).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.