TEHRAN, 17 May 2005 — Iran said yesterday it will give the European Union a last chance to salvage a nuclear deal at talks on May 23 before it resumes atomic work which Washington fears is part of a weapons program.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told the official IRNA news agency that Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani would meet the foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany on May 23 to try to reach an 11th-hour compromise.

“The venue for negotiations has not been determined yet,” he said, but senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian told the Iran News daily that the meeting would be in Brussels. Iranian officials have been negotiating with the EU trio to try to allay fears that Tehran is seeking nuclear arms.

Kharrazi said the May 23 talks may prove to be the “last round of negotiations” between Iran and the so-called EU-3, insisting that Iran has already decided to resume controversial uranium activities.

Iran was also warned that breaking the deal would spark its referral to the UN Security Council. Iran has agreed to hold off from resuming uranium conversion — a precursor to the ultra-sensitive enrichment process — pending the emergency talks with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

But quoted by the Iran News newspaper, a top nuclear negotiator and member of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said there was a strong chance the talks could fail.

“I confirm that a meeting at the foreign ministerial level between the EU-3 and Iran will be held in a few days time in Brussels, but I want to emphasize that the chances for success are not that high,” Hossein Moussavian said in an interview with the paper.

“The Europeans haven’t left much room for negotiation. They have gone back on their word and commitments made in the Paris Accord. The EU-3 have not accepted Iran’s ‘objective guarantees’,” he added.

“If Iran’s file is referred to the UN Security Council, we are ready for all contingencies,” said Moussavian.

The EU has offered Iran a package of incentives in return for “objective guarantees” it will not develop weapons — hoping to strike a deal similar to that which the United States and Britain reached with Libya.