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EU hopes Iran will resume nuclear talks-Straw

Posted on: Friday, 2 September 2005, 11:29 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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