World powers meet to discuss Iran nuclear offer
By Madeline Chambers
LONDON (Reuters) – World powers meet in London on Wednesday
to discuss a package of incentives and threats drafted by
European countries aimed at defusing a crisis over Iran’s
nuclear program.
Iran’s president, however, dampened hopes of any progress
by insisting on Iran’s right to a full range of nuclear
technology.
Senior officials from UN Security Council permanent members
China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain, plus
Germany, will try to narrow divisions over how to proceed to
persuade Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment work.
The head of Russia’s atomic energy agency said in
Washington he hoped for a “major breakthrough” at the London
meeting but a U.S. official said more talks may be needed to
reach agreement.
“I hope that this proposal would be a major breakthrough in
this issue,” Sergei Kiryenko said after talks with Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and other senior U.S. officials.
But he gave few details and it was unclear whether serious
differences had been resolved between Washington and Moscow
over U.S. demands that Iran face sanctions, resisted by Russia,
if it continues to defy the international community.
Washington and some western nations suspect Iran’s nuclear
program is a cover for efforts to develop an atomic bomb.
But the Islamic Republic says it is developing nuclear
technology for civilian power generation.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a defiant
message.
“Using nuclear energy is Iran’s right,” Ahmadinejad told a
rally in a speech which was broadcast live on state television.
“The enemies who could not stop the Iranian nation of
reaching nuclear technology by means of political pressure,
conspiracies and using the tool of international organizations
are now plotting against us,” he said.
One EU diplomat said it was hard to see what the meeting,
expected to start later in the morning, could achieve.
“It’s really just an academic exercise, since the Iranians
have made it clear that they won’t accept any offer.”
U.S.-RUSSIA RIFT
President Bush said countries had to work together to
encourage Tehran to halt its nuclear program.
“Obviously we’d like to solve this issue peacefully and
diplomatically, and the more the Iranians refuse to negotiate
in good faith the more countries are beginning to realize that
we must continue to work together,” Bush said.
But Bush said Iran had so far not shown signs of agreeing
and that Washington was working with partners, including
Russia, to show them that Iran was “showing no good faith.”
The package is likely to include an offer of a light-water
reactor and an assured supply from abroad of fuel for civilian
atomic plants so Iran would not have to enrich uranium itself.
Enriched uranium can be used as a nuclear fuel, but is also
a key component of atomic weapons.
The package will also warn of possible sanctions if Iran,
the world’s fourth-biggest oil producer, refuses the offer.
Diplomats say they would first discuss targeted sanctions,
such as visa bans on officials involved in the nuclear program,
before seeking ways of curtailing trade deals.
Some EU officials, analysts and the UN’s nuclear watchdog
– the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — want
Washington to engage with Iran.
They believe the only way to entice Iran back to
negotiations and getting it to stop its nuclear work would be a
U.S. pledge it would not try to topple the Tehran government.
The Washington Post, citing U.S. officials, Iranian
analysts and foreign diplomats, said on Tuesday Iran is making
explicit requests for direct talks with the United States.
Top Iranian officials have asked intermediaries, including
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, Indonesia, Kuwait and UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to make clear to Washington their
appetite for direct talks on its nuclear program, it said.
The State Department declined to give an immediate comment.
(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Tehran, Lou
Charbonneau in Berlin and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington.