"Mixed Signals" on Iran's Nuke Standoff
"Unfortunately we were not able to reach agreement," Douste-Blazy said of talks on Iran's nuclear standoff.
VIENNA, March 3, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) ? Last-minute nuclear talks between the European Union powers and Iran broke out without an agreement over Tehran's nuclear program, but an Iranian official said both Tehran and Moscow reached a total agreement on the standoff to meet the demands of the international community.
"Unfortunately we were not able to reach agreement," Reuters quoted French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy as saying after two hours of high-level talks in Vienna between foreign ministers of France, Germany and Britain and Iran's top negotiators.
The talks were called by Tehran in a last-ditch bid to avoid possible UN action over its nuclear program.
"We wanted to see if Iran was in a position to give a positive answer to the coming (International Atomic Energy Agency) IAEA board. Our terms are simple and legitimate and would not jeopardize Iran's (economic) development," Douste-Blazy added.
Friday's talks came ahead of a March 6 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is to make an assessment of Iran's nuclear program that will be sent to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
There had appeared little room for compromise as Europe and the United States have insisted that Iran must halt its uranium enrichment and give up its nuclear program on the ground of seeking to make weapons.
But Tehran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium, maintaining that under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, every country is entitled to use nuclear applications to produce power.
In Vain
Lavrov said Iran must agree to suspend all uranium enrichment activities.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the meeting was held upon Tehran's request with the hope to hear a new proposal, but in vain.
"Today's meeting came at a very critical point in time. Time is running short. If we want success (by negotiations), we have to get it now," Steinmeier said.
"The IAEA board deliberations on Iran's nuclear program will happen next week and they will be of great significance -- either we'll achieve a deal enabling renewed negotiations or the matter will be referred to the Security Council."
John Sawers, political director at the British Foreign Office representing British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, said there was no scheduled further meeting between Iran and the EU3.
"However, if the Iranians have something new to say and seek a further meeting with us, then of course we are prepared to have one."
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Iran must agree to suspend all uranium enrichment activities.
"There is still a chance to reach agreement," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
"If all the elements of the negotiations are approved, including a moratorium on uranium enrichment... then the result will be positive."
There was no immediate comment from Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
On February 5, Tehran had ended voluntary implementation of a protocol allowing snap UN inspections of its nuclear sites and halted its suspension of uranium enrichment, a day after it was reported to the UN Security Council by the IAEA.
"Agreement"
But an Iranian official said that Iran and Moscow have reached an agreement meeting the demands of both Tehran and the international community on Iran's nuclear issue.
"Iran and Russia have reached complete agreement on a package which meets all the demands of the international community, Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency," a senior Iranian official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Vienna.
"The details of this package have been given to the Europeans and we expect them to give a clear response to this complete proposal," he told AFP, on the sidelines of the talks between Tehran and EU mediators.
The official gave no details of the proposal, which he called "a way to save face for Iran and for Europe."
"There will be no better offer than this, which takes into account the points of view of the Europeans and Iran and which relieve international anxieties."
An Iranian delegation left Moscow Thursday, March 2, without any announcement of a breakthrough on a Russian-brokered plan for joint enrichment of uranium with Iran at a facility on Russian soil in order to keep Iran from getting enrichment technology that can be used to make atom bombs.
Linear Mode
