US envoy welcomes progress on Iran nuke row

VIENNA (Austria)—A senior U.S. envoy on Monday welcomed progress at talks meant to defuse a standoff over Iran's nuclear defiance, but said the U.N. Security Council still intends to move toward sanctions if Tehran refuses to freeze uranium enrichment.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, called for compromise, warning that the standoff was on the brink of escalating.
Six world powers have offered rewards for Tehran if it freezes uranium enrichment and punishments if it does not.
On Sunday, Iran said it was ready to consider complying — at least temporarily — with a U.N. Security Council demand that it freeze uranium enrichment.
Expanding on terms of such a possible Iranian compromise, a diplomat familiar with the issue said Tehran was seeking assurances it would not be attacked by the United States during any negotiations with six world powers on enrichment and other nuclear issues.
"They are essentially seeking assurances that they would not be bombed while they are talking," said the diplomat, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information.
Speaking just minutes before the start of his organization's 35-nation board meeting, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said that "the window of opportunity is not very long" — an implicit warning that the standoff was on the brink of escalating, with the U.N. Security Council close to considering sanctions.
Later in the week, the board will review an IAEA report received late last month documenting dozens of cases in which Iran has delayed or hampered attempts by his agency to probe Tehran's nuclear activities. The report also formally establishes that Iran ignored an Aug. 31 U.N. Security Council demand to suspend enrichment or face possible sanctions.
Touching on that report, Elbaradei said he would tell the board "that Iran has not come into full compliance with the (Security Council) request ... to suspend its enrichment ... and also to work with the agency to clarify important outstanding issues."
He said Iranian cooperation was "much overdue."
In separate comments inside the meeting, he said his agency could not "provide assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran" — essentially an acknowledgment that he could not guarantee that Tehran did not have a secret weapons program.
Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. delegate to the IAEA, also said time was running out for Tehran to suspend enrichment.
"It's encouraging that progress was made," he said, alluding to Iran's readiness to at least consider an enrichment freeze. "But ... we will be looking to move forward to the Security Council with the sanctions regime unless Iran suspends."
The board was responsible for moving Iran's nuclear file to the U.N. Security Council early this year, and the United States and its allies have regularly used its sessions to take Tehran to task for what they say are secret attempts to build a nuclear weapon.
But Iran's suggestion that it was ready to consider at least a temporary freeze was likely to take some pressure off the Islamic republic at the Vienna meeting.
Before Monday's opening session, a diplomat from a board member country said the European Union — whose foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, was instrumental in coaxing Iran to compromise — has prepared a "moderate" statement on Iran and its nuclear defiance. He also said the five Security Council nations and Germany were considering a joint statement.
But that could be difficult, considering that Russia, China and most recently France appear to be opposed to a push by the United States and Britain for a quick move to U.N. sanctions.
Another diplomat said the tone of any six-nation statement would be determined by what Solana tells those six countries later Monday in a conference call on progress made at his weekend Vienna talks with chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
Surprise news that Iran was considering stopping enrichment activities for up to two months was revealed to The Associated Press shortly after those talks by diplomats familiar with the discussions.
One of them said Larijani floated the possibility of Iran stopping its enrichment activities "voluntarily, for one or two months, if presented ... in such a way that it does it without pressure."
The diplomats did not say when such a contemplated move was planned.
Still, such a concession would be a major departure by Iran, which insists it wants to develop an enrichment program to generate power, and not to make nuclear weapons, as critics assert.
Because it would defuse a confrontation that neither side wants, it would also be welcomed Russia, China and France — the majority of the five U.N. permanent members of the Security Council who appear to oppose a quick move to sanctions. And for the sake of unity, it could be accepted grudgingly by the U.S. and Britain, which have been pushing for quick U.N. punishment.
The Security Council enrichment freeze demand is meant to back calls from the six powers that Tehran freeze enrichment before starting talks on its nuclear program geared at achieving a long-term moratorium on such activities.