Global Policy Forum

Adds diplomats on scrapping early IAEA meeting plan

By Francois Murphy

Iran's top nuclear negotiator met the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog in Vienna after announcing a plan to head off European Union preparations to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. The EU has held two years of talks with Iran to persuade it to abandon sensitive atomic work that both the 25-nation bloc and the United States suspect is aimed at making the Islamic Republic a nuclear-armed power in the volatile Middle East. But the talks appeared close to collapse after Iran resumed uranium conversion work this month, prompting the EU to cancel an Aug. 31 meeting. Frustrated by Iran's refusal to stop its work, the EU is now preparing the road to possible sanctions. The visit by Iran's top negotiator Ali Larijani to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna appeared to be an attempt to forestall the EU's efforts. ElBaradei is due to report on Iran's activities on Sept. 3. Larijani said on Thursday Iran was finalizing a new plan which would include broadening negotiations to involve nations outside the current trio of Britain, France and Germany which have so far represented the European Union in talks.

NEW INITIATIVE

Larijani said he regretted the EU3's decision to cancel their Aug. 31 meeting and said the trio should adopt a "logical approach of mutual interest instead of making obstacles". He said questions had been raised inside Iran and by allies on why talks were being carried out solely with the EU trio. Iran's Supreme National Security Council spokesman said broadening the nuclear talks to include other countries was part of a new initiative by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The initiative would also encompass plans for resuming other parts of Iran's nuclear program, currently suspended under an agreement with the EU3 made in Paris last November. "The activities that we're going to open and how we would do that depends on the plan that will be finalized soon and announced publicly," spokesman Ali Aghamohammadi said. Iran says all it wants to do is build nuclear power stations to satisfy booming domestic demand for electricity. But the United States says Iran's record of hiding its nuclear program for 18 years and a number of irregularities exposed by IAEA inspectors reveal a desire to build a bomb. The EU says Iran broke its pledge to suspend nuclear work while talks were in progress and the EU3 is now preparing for the IAEA board of governors meeting on Sept. 19, when the trio is expected to urge the entire board to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council. The Europeans and Americans had explored the possibility of an emergency board meeting before Sept. 19, but developing countries on the IAEA's 35-nation board, along with China and Russia, opposed the idea, EU diplomats told Reuters. "The Europeans and the Americans were exploring the idea of an early meeting, but there is not broad support for it. It's not going to happen," an EU diplomat told Reuters.

ELBARADEI REPORT CRUCIAL

What happens at the Sept. 19 IAEA meeting will depend on ElBaradei's report, EU diplomats said. "First we have to see what is in the report, which will formally say that Iran has violated the suspension, we expect," the diplomat said. But there will probably be resistance to a Security Council referral from the non-aligned developing states, which make up around a third of the board, diplomats said. Russia has called on Iran to resume the suspension but has repeatedly expressed its disagreement with a Security Council referral. Moscow is helping Iran build a nuclear power station and said on Thursday it saw no evidence Tehran was breaching the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Additional reporting by Paul Hughes in Tehran, Louis Charbonneau in Berlin, Mark John in Brussels and Maria Golovnina in Moscow.

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