VIENNA, 22 October 2004 — Iran will consider a proposal by the European Union to receive nuclear technology if it abandons its uranium enrichment program but has not yet agreed to any deal, an Iranian official said yesterday.
“It is just at the initial stage. The matter has to be considered on both sides,” Sirius Naseri, a member of the Iranian delegation at a meeting with senior French, British and German officials, told reporters.
“What has been agreed is that we will continue the dialogue,” he said outside the French mission to the United Nations, adding that the EU trio had presented their offer in “more or less clear terms.”
“I think we’ll get together in a matter of a few days,” Naseri said, adding that the next meeting might also be in Vienna.
Naseri said Iran wanted “to have a clear view about what the end game is.” He said the Europeans were reacting to a proposal Iran had made in September for a global solution to Tehran’s problems with Western nations, including security agreements for the Middle East.
“Both sides have been talking about trying to come to a negotiated agreement which will be on the basis of a win-win situation for both sides and be acceptable to both sides,” Naseri said.
If Iran rejects the EU offer, diplomats say most European nations will back US demands that Tehran be reported to the UN Security Council for possible economic sanctions when the International Atomic Energy Agency meets in November.
Asked if Iran was afraid of being reported to the Security Council, Naseri said only: “We are not threatening each other.”
Diplomats said the EU’s “big three” had the reluctant blessing of the United States in making the offer, despite Washington’s belief that Iran was using talks with the EU to buy time to acquire the capability to build a nuclear bomb.
“At this point Iranian compliance doesn’t seem likely... based on Iran’s history and their current expressions and the things that they’re saying and doing right now,” US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is only for power generation and that it will never give up uranium enrichment — a process that can be used to make fuel for nuclear reactors or material for atom bombs.
The IAEA, the UN atomic watchdog body, has been investigating Iran’s nuclear program for more than two years. It has uncovered many previously hidden activities that could be related to a weapons program but has found no “smoking gun”.
President Mohammad Khatami said Wednesday if Iran was guaranteed the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology, Tehran would “present everything necessary to prove that Iran will not produce an atomic bomb. But we will not give up our rights.”
Influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani reinforced the message yesterday as the talks were beginning, saying: “We have announced our stance repeatedly. It is irreversible.”
Some diplomats say Iranian officials have never clearly explained why their oil-rich state needs nuclear energy or why they are so intent on producing nuclear fuel — years before any Iranian atomic power facilities would be in need of such fuel.
Khatami said Wednesday: “We cannot rely on other countries to supply our nuclear fuel as they can stop it anytime due to political pressures.”
A Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said acceptance of the EU offer could protect it from the Security Council. “If Iran accepts it, it could strengthen their hand in November,” he said.
