Iran sees new EU nuke talks

TEHRAN—Iran expects its nuclear talks with the European Union, which broke down in August, to resume after this week’s board meeting of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday.
“The atmosphere exists for such negotiations to be held after the Vienna meeting” of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mottaki told a news conference. A fresh round of talks would ease diplomatic pressure on Iran, which has adopted a tougher stance on the nuclear issue since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August.
The IAEA board meeting is due to start on Thursday with diplomats predicting there will be no push this time by Washington and the EU to send Iran’s case to the U.N. Security Council, where Tehran could face sanctions. Diplomats in Vienna told Reuters that EU and Iranian officials would probably meet on December 6. They said discussions would focus on a proposal that Iran transfer to Russia all of its uranium enrichment — a process that can be used to make atomic bombs. “The meeting will be to discuss the Russian initiative and to define conditions for the resumption of negotiations between the two sides,” one diplomat said. Mottaki said he had spoken by telephone to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Tuesday to discuss resuming talks, which collapsed when Iran broke U.N. seals at its Isfahan facility and began processing uranium ore, a step preceding enrichment. Mottaki noted that Tehran this month wrote to EU lead negotiators Britain, Germany and France inviting them to resume the talks. The EU trio have not formally replied. “The negotiations should be purposeful, beneficial and within a logical time frame,” he said. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Iran to adopt a constructive attitude to the nuclear negotiations.Mottaki stressed Iran’s right as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to develop a full civilian nuclear energy program.
“It is natural that we are after this right within the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said, suggesting Iran would reject any plan that barred it from enriching uranium on its own soil. Iran says its nuclear technology will never be used to make atomic bombs. However, its past concealment of potentially weapons-related atomic work has caused concern in the West. A key stumbling block to the resumption of negotiations with the EU has been Tehran’s refusal to mothball the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility, which produces a gas that, when enriched, can be used to make atomic reactor or weapons-grade fuel. Iran this month began processing a fresh batch of uranium ore and Mottaki denied rumors circulating in Vienna that work at Isfahan had since been suspended.