EU hopes Iran will resume nuclear talks-Straw

NEWPORT (Reuters) – The European Union hopes Iran will
resume talks on its nuclear program, British Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw said on Friday ahead of a report likely to spark EU
and U.S. calls to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

Referral to the U.N. body could eventually lead to
sanctions and would end two years of negotiations by the EU to
try to dissuade Iran from pursuing uranium enrichment
activities the West fears is a cover for developing an atomic
bomb.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.
nuclear watchdog, is expected to release a new report on Iran’s
case on Friday or Saturday.

Diplomats say the IAEA will likely conclude Tehran has not
complied with the IAEA’s August demand that it reinstate a full
suspension of all sensitive nuclear work.

Straw said the EU would study the report and consult other
countries before taking steps but he stressed he still hoped
Tehran would return to the negotiating table.

“We want to see these talks resumed because we not only
believe this is in the interests of the international community
but also in the interests of Iran,” Straw told reporters at a
meeting of EU foreign ministers in Newport, Wales.

Britain, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, has,
with France and Germany, been negotiating with Iran over its
nuclear program for two years.

But Iran’s resumption last month of uranium processing work
at a plant in Isfahan has brought the talks close to collapse
and led EU officials to threaten U.N. Security Council
referral.

Speaking in Tehran, Iran’s chief atomic negotiator Ali
Larijani said Iran was open to talks with the EU and other
countries about its nuclear program, but did not feel bound by
these negotiations.

Larijani said he hoped the IAEA report would contain
“positive points” that would encourage Tehran to cooperate more
with the agency.

Confirmation that Iran refused to resume the suspension,
which was the cornerstone of a November 2004 deal with the EU’s
Big Three, would likely prompt the bloc to join Washington in
pushing for Iran to be referred to the U.N. Security Council
for punitive action, EU diplomats said.

Asked about military action against Iran, Straw said it was
not an option: “Nobody is proposing military action in respect
of Iran, nobody whatever. It’s not on anyone’s agenda at all,”
he told a news conference.

“This is an issue that can only be resolved in a diplomatic
manner,” he added.

Straw said on Thursday that the key to resolving the
impasse was for Iran “to take confidence building steps”
requested of it in successive IAEA board resolutions.