VIENNA, 23 November 2005 — European Union powers are willing to revive nuclear talks with Iran to discuss a Russian proposal aimed at defusing an impasse over what the West believes is an Iranian atomic bomb program, diplomats said yesterday.
Under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal, Iran would be allowed to continue converting uranium ore but would ship it to Russia for enrichment, a system which, in theory, would prevent Iran from producing weapons-grade uranium.
Britain, France, Germany and Russia have set a tentative date in December to meet with Iran to discuss the nuclear program.
“The date is Dec. 6. There is no agreement yet on the venue,” a European diplomat said. He said the idea would be to “talk about (resuming) talks” between Iran and EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany on guaranteeing Tehran will not make nuclear weapons.
The talks broke off in August when Iran resumed nuclear fuel work it had suspended nine months earlier in order to start the talks.
New talks would be the next step after the United States and the so-called EU-3 put off calling this week on the UN nuclear watchdog to take Iran before the UN Security Council, in order to give Russia time to get Tehran to agree to a compromise on its atomic program, diplomats said.
The European diplomat told AFP that it was not yet clear if the EU-3, Russia and Iran would all sit down together on Dec. 6 or if “they would meet in mixed forms.”
The diplomat said there would be “no strings attached” to the meeting, although Iran would be expected “to be prepared to discuss seriously” the Russian compromise proposal for Tehran to agree that its uranium enrichment, which makes what can be nuclear reactor fuel or bomb material, be carried out in Russia.
Iran Wants Timetable for
US Pullout From Iraq
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei called on visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani yesterday to press for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.
Khamenei also argued it was the United States that was to blame for the ongoing violence in Iraq, amid efforts by Talabani to win Iranian help in combating the insurgency ravaging his country.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran holds the American government responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people and all the crimes and assassinations now being committed in Iraq,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by official media.
“The presence of foreign troops is damaging for the Iraqis, and the Iraqi government could ask for their departure by proposing a timetable,” Khamenei asserted adding that “the US and Britain will eventually have to leave Iraq with a bitter experience.”
Khamenei also told Talabani his country “would be empowered by the development, security, independence and the empowerment of Iraq”.
Meanwhile, an influential steering committee in Iran’s parliament said it would oppose the president’s third candidate for oil minister, the official IRNA news agency reported yesterday.
If Mohsen Tasalloti is rejected by parliamentarians in a vote today, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be hurled into an unprecedented political crisis and the energy policy of OPEC’s second biggest exporter will remain in limbo.
IRNA reported the 31-member central council of parliament’s conservative majority had voted against supporting Tasalloti, a veteran of the petrochemicals industry. The council’s decision could influence a large block of Iran’s 290 parliamentarians to vote against Tasalloti.
