Last-ditch EU-Iran talks agreed before IAEA meets

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) – Top EU powers meet Iran’s chief nuclear
negotiator on Friday for a last stab at dialogue before a U.N.
atomic watchdog meeting that may bring Security Council steps
against Tehran over fears it secretly seeks atom bombs.

Thursday’s word of the talks in Vienna was a surprise,
given Iran’s defiance of international calls to rein in nuclear
work.

But Iran seems keen to brake momentum toward Security
Council action, and the European Union appears keen to show it
will listen, if not bend, to Tehran before weighing sanctions.

No breakthrough seems in the cards, given that Tehran is
speeding up uranium enrichment work geared to fuelling nuclear
power plants or, potentially, weapons while going slow in talks
on a Russian compromise proposal to defuse the crisis.

“We will listen to what (top nuclear negotiator Ali
Larijani) has to say but we have no new proposals,” said a
British Foreign Office spokesman.

EU diplomats said Larijani would again be told Iran must
return to a complete suspension of enrichment-related activity
including conversions of uranium ore, the first step in the
process, to win fresh negotiations on trade incentives.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board of
governors will convene on Monday to weigh a report by the IAEA
chief saying essentially that Iran has ignored a February 4
call to re-suspend enrichment work to regain world trust.

The Vienna-based board reported Iran to the Council but on
the condition the top world body on war and peace issues would
not flex its muscle at least until after next week’s session.

In past weeks, Iranian leaders have been roaming the world
trying to mine non-Western opposition to punishing Tehran
without hard evidence of covert bomb-making and inviting
Western stakes in its atomic program to help ensure it is
peaceful.

Iran says it wants only nuclear-generated electricity. But
it hid atomic work from the IAEA for 18 years, President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly called for Israel to be
destroyed and the IAEA says Tehran continues to stonewall its
investigations.

“We agreed to this meeting only reluctantly. But we decided
to show the EU3 format is still on the table since Iran had
pronounced it dead,” said an EU3 diplomat in Vienna.

LARIJANI WARNING

Larijani said Iran sought another hearing with the EU as
“we believe our programs are clear and defensible” but warned
Russia’s proposal would die if the Security Council intervened.

Moscow has offered to purify uranium for Iran in Russia to
prevent diversions of nuclear materials to arms production.

“Negotiations with Russia were constructive and effective
… (but) the Russian proposal needs to become more mature,”
Larijani told IRNA news agency, apparently objecting to
Moscow’s insistence Iran re-suspend enrichment work as part of
the deal.

If the Security Council does crack down on Iran after the
IAEA session, the Islamic Republic would feel discriminated
against and see little point remaining within the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, Tehran’s IAEA ambassador said.

“One thing has to be clear. If … the Security Council
gets involved the situation will definitely deteriorate, a
lose-lose game,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Reuters in a phone
interview.

“This is not a warning but a reality. Many in Iran have
national pride in nuclear activities. If we are referred to the
Council, they would be very disappointed,” Soltanieh said.

He said many Iranians wondered why some countries — such
as Israel and India — had refused to join the NPT, developed
nuclear arsenals without IAEA safeguards and enjoyed normal
relations with the West, while Iran faced isolation.

IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei, who is also due to
meet the foreign ministers, has welcomed the EU3-Iran meeting.

ElBaradei is concerned that involving the Security Council
may drive Iran into a corner and lead to deadlock, given that
veto-wielding Russia and China — both with massive investments
in the Islamic Republic — reject sanctions.