Russia, Iran fail to break impasse (Reuters) Updated: 2006-03-02 09:28
Iran and Russia failed to agree on a compromise to break the deadlock over
Tehran's nuclear program on Wednesday, as the Islamic Republic's president
sought support in Muslim Malaysia.
Iranian nuclear
negotiator Ali Larijani arrives at a Moscow hotel for negotiations, March
1, 2006. [Reuters] | Iranian officials, headed
by top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, held a third round of talks on Moscow's
proposal to carry out uranium enrichment for Iran on Russian soil.
"We need to refine ... a few elements of this question and study it. This
requires time," Larijani told reporters through a translator after the talks
ended late in the evening.
But he stuck to Tehran's line that even if a deal is struck with the Russians
Iran will not bow to the key demand from its critics -- to drop all efforts to
enrich uranium at home.
"I want to say that the process of enrichment is a sovereign right of any
state," he said.
Sergei Kislyak, a Russian deputy foreign minister, was quoted by Interfax
news agency as saying that "not a few questions remain unresolved."
Time is running out for a breakthrough before March 6, when the United
Nation's nuclear watchdog is to issue a report on Iran's nuclear activities,
which Tehran says are peaceful but others say are in pursuit of an atomic
weapon.
The United States and the European Union trio of Britain, France and Germany
-- the countries pressing Iran hardest on the issue -- say that any deal with
Russia would be worth little unless it stopped Iran's own enrichment program.
The Iranian delegation is to leave Moscow on Thursday, Russian news agencies
said. But Larijani implied there would be more talks before their departure.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Malaysia for a trip that
appeared to be part of a campaign to win support for his nuclear stance as the
crunch March 6 meeting draws nearer.
An Iranian diplomat said Ahmadinejad, who stopped off in Kuwait en route,
would brief Malaysian leaders on "Iran's peaceful nuclear technology
achievements and the purpose of its activities."
SUSPICIONS
There is less than a week until the International Atomic Energy Agency meets
and its board discusses its latest report into Iran's nuclear program.
The watchdog's report, which says it still cannot confirm there is no covert
atomic activity in Iran, will then be forwarded to the United Nations Security
Council.
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, partly on traders' concerns the nuclear row
could affect Iranian crude supplies.
The thinking behind Moscow's proposal is that Russia would enrich Iranian
uranium to the level Iran says it needs to fuel power stations, but not to the
higher grade needed for weapons.
Moscow, Washington and the EU 3 have said Iran returning to a moratorium on
enrichment is a non-negotiable pre-condition of any deal, but Larijani said
before Wednesday's talks started that such a step was not on the agenda.
"A moratorium is necessary if there is something dangerous, but all our
activity is transparent and directed toward peaceful nuclear power," he told
reporters.
U.S. President George W. Bush, on a brief visit to Iran's neighbor
Afghanistan, said he backed Russia's efforts to find a compromise deal with
Tehran.
"Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. The most destabilizing thing that can
happen in this region and in the world is for Iran to have a, develop a nuclear
weapon," Bush said.
"And so we've joined with Russia as part of a diplomatic effort to solve this
problem."
Moscow sees the enrichment joint venture as a way out of confrontation, but
diplomats in Europe and the United States say Tehran is just playing for time.
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