Global Security Newswire

A team of senior International Atomic Energy Agency officials was scheduled on Tuesday to wrap up another visit to Iran aimed at addressing concerns about the Middle Eastern state's contested atomic activities, Reuters reported (see GSN, Feb. 17).

"We hope to have a couple of good and constructive days in Tehran," IAEA safeguards chief Herman Nackaerts said as his five-person team set out on the trip, preparing to board a plane at the Vienna, Austria, airport on Sunday.

"The highest priority remains of course the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program," Nackaerts added.

This week's two-day meeting follows a January visit to Tehran by Nackaerts and other officials from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. The organization is looking for Iran to address indications of nuclear work that could have weapons applications, and to allow the IAEA personnel to view facilities and records and meet with Iranian atomic personnel. Tehran says its nuclear sector has no military dimension, and has labeled documents suggesting such weapons work as fakes.

"We want to tackle all outstanding issues," Nackaerts said.

Envoys from Western nations have said they do not expect significant progress from this week's talks, though.

"I'm still pessimistic that Iran will demonstrate the substantive cooperation necessary," according to one source.

The worry is that Iran is scheduling "talks about talks" even as it increases its stock of uranium enriched to 20 percent (Fredrik Dahl, Reuters I, Feb. 19).

The IAEA teams wants to view the Parchin military installation, which has been viewed as the potential site of a tank for performing explosive detonations relevant to a nuclear-weapon effort, the Associated Press cited Iranian state radio as reporting (see GSN, Feb. 3). Agency personnel received a partial tour of the site in 2005 (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press I/Denver Post, Feb. 20).

The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday indicated that the IAEA team would not go to Parchin, AP reported.

"The titles of the members of the visiting delegation is not inspectors. This is an expert delegation. The purpose of visit is not inspection," said ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast. "The aim is to negotiate about cooperation between Iran and the agency and to set a framework for a continuation of the talks."

"Iran's cooperation with the (IAEA) agency continues and is at its best level," the official added (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press II/My San Antonio, Feb. 21).

The visit comes as global powers consider a recent message from Iran regarding the potential resumption of nuclear talks, AP reported. Iran in December 2010 and January 2011 conducted two rounds of meetings with Germany and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Neither session resulted in a breakthrough on the atomic impasse.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in October sent a letter to top Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili regarding further discussions. Jalili delivered his response last week.

The message is "one we have been waiting for," said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. However, "if we do proceed it will have to be a sustained effort that will produce results," she said on Friday alongside Ashton.

"We must be assured that if we make a decision to go forward, we see a sustained effort by Iran to come to the table to work until we have reached an outcome that has Iran coming back into compliance with their international obligations," Clinton said. "We're evaluating all of these factors. But I think it's fair to say … that we think this is an important step and we welcome the letter."

Added Ashton: "I think it is good to see that the letter has arrived and there is a potential possibility that Iran may be willing to resume talks" (Matthew Lee, Associated Press III/USA Today, Feb. 17).

Separately, diplomatic sources told AP that Iran has installed pipes, electric circuits and other systems that could enable placement of thousands of more sophisticated uranium enrichment centrifuges at its subterranean Qum facility.

The United States and other nations have focused on bringing a halt to Iran's enrichment operations, which could be used to produce nuclear-weapon material. The Middle Eastern state has refined material to 20 percent, far below the enrichment level considered weapon-grade, and says its program is aimed only at peaceful operations such as energy production and generation of medical isotopes.

The envoys said it was not yet clear that Iran intends to actually place the faster-enrichment devices at Qum, but that there would be minimal cause to install the support systems unless that was the ultimate goal.

The sources also said it would take only days for Iran to prepare centrifuges already at Qum to produce weapon-ready uranium (George Jahn, Associated Press IV/Seattle Times, Feb. 18).

Tehran on Tuesday reaffirmed its willingness to engage in talks on its nuclear program, but said it would not accept curbs on its atomic sector, Agence France-Presse reported.

"The issue of our country's peaceful nuclear activities will be on the agenda of talks between Iran and the P-5+1 (the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany)," Mehmanparast said to journalists.

"Our main demand is recognition of our right to possess the (nuclear) technology for peaceful purposes," he added. "That right has been achieved, and we don't think there is a negotiable issue regarding our nuclear activities."

He spoke one day after the government said it was conducting drills aimed at countering air-based threats to its atomic sites. There has been increasing speculation in recent weeks that Israel is seriously mulling the use of armed force against Iranian nuclear facilities.

"If the Zionist regime (Israel) commits a stupid action, we have a total ability to confront it," said Gen. Mohammad Hejazi, a deputy chief of Iran's Joint Chiefs of Staff (Mohammad Davari, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Feb. 21).

"Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran's national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions," Reuters quoted Hejazi as saying on Tuesday (Parisa Hafezi, Reuters II, Feb. 21).

The head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff on Saturday characterized a potential Israeli strike against Iran as "destabilizing," CNN reported.

An attack would set back Iranian nuclear work "probably for a couple of years, but some of the targets are probably beyond their reach," according to Army Gen. Martin Dempsey.

"I'm confident that they [Israel] understand our concerns, that a strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn't achieve their long-term objectives," he said. "But, I mean, I also understand that Israel has national interests that are unique to them. And, of course, they consider Iran to be an existential threat in a way that we have not concluded that Iran is an existential threat."

Dempsey highlighted the effects of economic penalties and diplomatic measures against Iran. The U.N. Security Council has issued four sanctions resolutions in the nuclear standoff, which have been bolstered by unilateral moves by the European Union, United States and other governments.

"On that basis, I think it would be premature to exclusively decide that the time for a military option was upon us," the general said (CNN, Feb. 19).

Israel would face major challenges in carrying out such an assault, including crossing other nations' territory, hitting a number of subterranean facilities at one time and defeating Iran's air-defense systems, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

“All the pundits who talk about ‘Oh, yeah, bomb Iran,’ it ain’t going to be that easy,” said former U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who in 2011 retired as the service's top intelligence official.

“There’s only one superpower in the world that can carry this off,” he added. “Israel’s great on a selective strike here and there" (Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times, Feb. 19).

Meanwhile, Iran on Sunday said it would stop shipping oil to France and the United Kingdom, the Los Angeles Times reported. The announcement comes as the European Union moves by July to institute a full embargo on import of Iranian petroleum (Patrick McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 19).

Tehran could take the same step against additional European states that have not made their position on the embargo clear, Reuters quoted Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi as saying (Ramin Mostafavi, Reuters III, Feb. 21).

Japan appears ready to accept an 11-percent reduction in imports of unrefined Iranian petroleum, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Washington has been pressing Tokyo to accept a cut as part of the global effort to pressure Iran. An official deal is expected before March, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

"We are closely negotiating with the United States and are moving forward towards mutual understanding, but it is not the case that we have reached a conclusion," said Trade Minister Yukio Edano (Tsukimori/Kubota, Reuters IV, Feb. 21).

Iranian financial institutions are also expected within weeks to lose access to an international fund transfer network, AP reported.

Should the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, upon EU instructions, move ahead with its recently announced "commitment to ban Iranian banks, it could sever the Iranian regime's financial lifeline," said Iran sanctions specialist Mark Dubowitz. "It would also be a significant political embarrassment for the regime: Iran would be the first country in SWIFT's history to be expelled from what is the financial equivalent of the United Nations" (Gearan/Lekic, Associated Press V/ABC News, Feb. 18).