Early easing of nuke sanctions unlikely despite Iran's appeals
Source: Agencies |
May 24, 2012, Thursday
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DIPLOMATS from six world powers offered Iran new proposals yesterday to ease international concerns about its nuclear program, but appeared to reject Tehran's appeals to ease economic sanctions to help move along talks.
The proposal by the US and its negotiation partners focused on Iran's highest-level uranium enrichment - at 20 percent - which many Western leaders fear could be quickly turned into warhead-grade material. Other details of the plan were not immediately disclosed.
But the proposal may meet a swift refusal from Iran. Its envoys seek agreements to lessen, or at least delay, sanctions that have targeted Iran's critical oil exports and cut off the country from lucrative European markets.
"We hope the package that we put on the table is attractive to them so they will react positively," said Mike Mann, spokesman for the head of the European Union delegation. "It's up to them to react."
Mann would not discuss whether the 20 percent level enrichment represented a red line that could again scuttle the negotiations, which had only restarted last month after collapsing in early 2011.
The highly enriched uranium is far above the level needed for energy-producing reactors, but is used in medical research. Iran claims its nuclear program is only for electricity and medical applications.
Despite the new proposals, no breakthrough accords are expected in the talks in Iraq's capital, suggesting that all sides are still shaping their strategies and the negotiation process is likely to be long.
That could allow US and European allies to significantly tone down threats of military action. But it would likely bring objections from Israel, which claims that Iran is only trying to buy time to keep its nuclear fuel labs in full operation.
Mann suggested that any rollback in sanctions was unlikely in the Baghdad talks. He said some of the most painful sanctions - including a European Union ban on Iranian oil imports beginning July 1 - are a "matter of the law and they will come into force when they come into force."
Iran's top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have repeated said that Iran does not seek nuclear arms and have called such weapons against Islamic principles.
During a visit to western Iran yesterday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad evoked Khamenei's belief that "production and use of weapons of mass destruction is forbidden" by Islam.
"There is no room for these weapons in Iran's defense doctrine," he said at a commemoration for victims of Iraqi chemical weapons during the 1980-88 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
The Baghdad talks could offer a test of how much the US and allies are willing to bend from demands for Iran to halt all uranium enrichment and instead concentrate on just stopping the highest-grade production.
The proposal by the US and its negotiation partners focused on Iran's highest-level uranium enrichment - at 20 percent - which many Western leaders fear could be quickly turned into warhead-grade material. Other details of the plan were not immediately disclosed.
But the proposal may meet a swift refusal from Iran. Its envoys seek agreements to lessen, or at least delay, sanctions that have targeted Iran's critical oil exports and cut off the country from lucrative European markets.
"We hope the package that we put on the table is attractive to them so they will react positively," said Mike Mann, spokesman for the head of the European Union delegation. "It's up to them to react."
Mann would not discuss whether the 20 percent level enrichment represented a red line that could again scuttle the negotiations, which had only restarted last month after collapsing in early 2011.
The highly enriched uranium is far above the level needed for energy-producing reactors, but is used in medical research. Iran claims its nuclear program is only for electricity and medical applications.
Despite the new proposals, no breakthrough accords are expected in the talks in Iraq's capital, suggesting that all sides are still shaping their strategies and the negotiation process is likely to be long.
That could allow US and European allies to significantly tone down threats of military action. But it would likely bring objections from Israel, which claims that Iran is only trying to buy time to keep its nuclear fuel labs in full operation.
Mann suggested that any rollback in sanctions was unlikely in the Baghdad talks. He said some of the most painful sanctions - including a European Union ban on Iranian oil imports beginning July 1 - are a "matter of the law and they will come into force when they come into force."
Iran's top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have repeated said that Iran does not seek nuclear arms and have called such weapons against Islamic principles.
During a visit to western Iran yesterday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad evoked Khamenei's belief that "production and use of weapons of mass destruction is forbidden" by Islam.
"There is no room for these weapons in Iran's defense doctrine," he said at a commemoration for victims of Iraqi chemical weapons during the 1980-88 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
The Baghdad talks could offer a test of how much the US and allies are willing to bend from demands for Iran to halt all uranium enrichment and instead concentrate on just stopping the highest-grade production.
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