U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday pressed Iran to accept a U.N. proposal for enriching the Middle Eastern state's uranium in other countries, arguing that doing so would help defuse a long-standing nuclear crisis and place Tehran on a path toward greater integration with the international community, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Nov. 2).
The enrichment plan, put forward last month by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, was aimed at eliminating immediate concerns that Iran could produce enough material for a nuclear weapon using its existing stockpile of low-enriched uranium. France, Russia and the United States indicated their support for the proposal, but Tehran appeared to balk last week at the plan's call for the rapid transfer of much of the country's uranium.
"This is a pivotal moment for Iran. Acceptance fully of this proposal would be a good indication that Iran does not wish to be isolated and does wish to cooperate," Clinton said. "We urge Iran to accept the proposal ... (that) they agreed to in principle" (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Nov. 3).
Hours earlier, Tehran had expressed concern that world powers would refuse to return Iran's uranium under ElBaradei's plan, the Washington Post reported. Under the proposal, France and Russia would refine the Gulf nation's uranium for use at a medical research reactor in Tehran (Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post, Nov. 3).
"The core issue is the assurance and guarantee of the supply, keeping in mind the past confidence deficit where we did not receive the fuel we had paid for," Reuters quoted Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, as saying.
Soltanieh reaffirmed that Tehran wants to purchase additional uranium from abroad (Sylvia Westall, Reuters , Nov. 2).
"We are ready for the next round of technical discussions to make sure that our concerns ... are taken into consideration," Soltanieh said, according to the Associated Press.
Iran's counterproposals offer a "historical juncture" for world powers negotiating with Iran to "prove their political goodwill," he said (George Jahn, Associated Press I/Google News, Nov. 2).
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said yesterday that Iran had not ruled out acceptance of ElBaradei's uranium transfer proposal, but that the nation could alternatively choose to import the uranium or to enrich the material indigenously (George Jahn, Associated Press II/Taiwan News, Nov. 2).
Iranian officials have also suggested that Tehran be allowed to gradually turn over limited amounts of its low-enriched uranium for refinement by other nations rather than rapidly transferring a large portion of its stockpile (Jahn, Associated Press I).
Questioned about a statement by Clinton that Washington and its allies were losing patience with Tehran, Mottaki answered: "Really?" (Jahn, Associated Press II)
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany would not tolerate Iranian efforts to bog down the negotiating process, AFP reported yesterday.
"If the Iranian response is to stall, as it seems to be, we will not accept this," he said (AFP I).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday called for a new meeting of the six powers, the United News of India reported.
The countries could use the session to begin a "proper dialogue" on ElBaradei's uranium transfer proposal as well as "the ideas Iran has proposed in response," Lavrov said (United News of India/New Kerala, Nov. 2).
Meanwhile, Iran's supreme religious leader today said that Washington could not be trusted to live up to its word in nuclear talks, AFP reported.
"Every time they have a smile on their face, they are hiding a dagger behind their back," said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields the final word on all Iranian policy matters.
"Iran will not be fooled by the superficial conciliatory tone of the United States," he said in a speech to students.
U.S. President Barack Obama "repeatedly sent us oral and written messages to come and change the page ... to come and cooperate in solving the problems of the world," Khamenei said. "We said we will not prejudge. We will see their action and see what they do about the change."
"But in the past eight months what we have seen is contradictory to what they say. They are telling us to negotiate, but alongside the negotiation there is a threat that if the negotiation does not bear the desired results, then we will do this and we will do that," he added.
"We do not want any negotiation, the result of which is predetermined by the United States," Khamenei said (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Nov. 3).
Iran analysts said that intense internal debate over the nuclear dispute has weakened Tehran's power to negotiate decisively on the issue, the New York Times reported yesterday.
“Since the 1979 revolution it is rare for the political elite to disagree so openly with an issue of this significance,” said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a Syracuse University political expert.
“It is the worst-case scenario because it can leave [world powers] with the impression diplomacy has been tried and failed, whereas in reality it came at a point when Iran is too politically divided and incapable of making decisions of this magnitude,” added Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Association.
“Even a potential deal that serves Iran’s overall interests can be scuttled due to Iran’s highly factionalized political environment,” said Alireza Nader, an Iran analyst with the RAND Corp. (Michael Slackman, New York Times, Nov. 2).