- Britain, France and Germany are to promise Iran that
it will not face military attack if it abandons enriching uranium, the
key to building a nuclear bomb, a senior Iranian official said yesterday.
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- With Tehran and the three EU countries engaged in a delicate
game of brinkmanship as a new hardline Iranian leader is sworn in as president,
Hassan Rowhani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said the EU trio was to
offer the non-aggression pledge as one incentive aimed at getting Iran
to forfeit uranium enrichment.
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- Both sides in the long-running dispute upped the ante
at the weekend, with Tehran saying yesterday that it would resume some
nuclear fuel activities today.
-
- "As we did not receive the EU proposal, naturally
we will definitely resume work at the Isfahan plant tomorrow," a senior
Iranian nuclear official told the Reuters news agency.
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- Meanwhile, Britain told Tehran it would need to wait
another week for the details of the incentives.
-
- Under an agreement with the EU last November, Iran suspended
its uranium enrichment programme. The EU troika agreed to deliver a set
of political, economic and nuclear offers to Iran by the end of July or
early August.
-
- The deadline passed yesterday, according to the Iranians.
The EU requested a week's extension because it wants to wait for the inauguration
this week of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, before revealing
its hand and to see whether the new head of state, viewed as a radical,
plans any changes to his nuclear policy or negotiating team.
-
- British officials described the Iranian warning at the
weekend as damaging prospects for an overall agreement. Mr Rowhani's disclosures
about a non-aggression pact came in a letter on the nuclear crisis to the
outgoing president, Mohammed Khatami, reported yesterday by Iran's state
news agency. It is not clear, however, whether Mr Rowhani, viewed as a
moderate, will survive in position. The same news agency reported last
month that he had resigned.
-
- Mr Rowhani also suggested that Iran should bow to EU
demands by maintaining its freeze on uranium enrichment, a policy opposed
by hardliners.
-
- The Rowhani statement supporting a more pragmatic Iranian
course may reflect an internal battle over the direction of nuclear policy
under the new administration.
-
- Moderates in Tehran, including President Khatami, have
indicated they will preserve the enrichment freeze. But the authorities
are sending mixed signals. They rejected the EU request for the extra week
with the threat to restart part of the enrichment work by resuming uranium
conversion.
-
- The Iranians insist the work at Isfahan - taking uranium
concentrate and converting it into uranium hexafluoride gas - is not uranium
enrichment. The Iranians are threatening to restart the work at Isfahan
today, an act that would be viewed negatively by the Europeans and push
the EU trio towards the US position - to penalise Iran by taking the dispute
to the UN security council in New York.
-
- The Americans and the Europeans view the Natanz enrichment
plant as the centre of a potential bomb-building capacity and want it closed
down.
-
- Diplomats following the dispute said all sides were engaged
in manoeuvring. Most are pessimistic that a sustainable deal will be reached
and expect the dispute to escalate.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1540232,00.html
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