WORLD / Middle East
World powers give Iran enrichment leeway
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-08 09:00
In a major concession, world powers are no longer demanding that Iran
commit to a prolonged moratorium on uranium enrichment and are now asking
only for a suspension during talks on its nuclear program, diplomats and
officials said Wednesday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and former Palestinian
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath seen during their meeting in Moscow,
Wednesday, June 7, 2006. Russia will only support sanctions against Iran
if it violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Lavrov said
Wednesday, apparently dampening hopes of a united international front if
Tehran rejects a compromise package over its nuclear activities. [AP]
The proposal and a connected offer to allow continued uranium conversion
are part of an effort to avoid a showdown over international concerns
that the Iranians are trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Backing off the previous stance on enrichment signals a possible
readiness by the United States and key allies to accept some limited form
of enrichment by Iran, despite years of warnings from Washington that
Tehran wanted such technology to make atomic warheads.
Iran insists its nuclear program is intended only to produce power,
arguing it needs enrichment technology to produce fuel for atomic
reactors that would generate electricity.
Since talks between European nations and Iran broke off last August, the
public stance by the European negotiators and the United States has been
that Iran must commit to a long-term halt in enrichment as a precondition
for talks.
Still, a diplomat said that despite the concession, a long-term
moratorium remained the preferred goal of the six nations that approved a
package of incentives for the Tehran regime last week, the United States,
China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.
Beyond that, the talks are meant to reach agreement on what kind of
nuclear activities Iran can conduct under conditions that dispel fears it
wants a military program.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who presented the
offer to Iranian officials this week, said Wednesday that the issue of
enrichment would have to be reassessed once talks were completed.
"In principle ... they will have to stop now, we will have to negotiate
with no process of enrichment in place," he told reporters in Germany.
"After the finalization of the negotiations we will see what happens."
Solana said the incentive offer came with "no specific timeframe," but
that he expected an Iranian answer within "weeks."
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