GENEVA: Iran has indicated a readiness to scale back uranium enrichment the West fears could be put to making nuclear bombs, suggesting it is willing to compromise for a deal to win relief from harsh economic sanctions, diplomats said yesterday.
Details of Iran’s proposals, presented during two days of negotiations in Geneva with six world powers, have not been made public, and Western officials were unsure whether Tehran was prepared to go far enough to clinch a breakthrough deal.
But, in a clear sign of hope, the two sides agreed to hold follow-up negotiations on November 7-8 in Geneva, a Western diplomat told Reuters as the current two-day round drew to a close.
After a six-month hiatus, Iran and the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany began negotiations in earnest on Tuesday to end a long, festering stand-off that could boil over into a new Middle East war.
Both sides sought to dampen expectations of any rapid deal at the meeting, the first since moderate President Hassan Rouhani was elected in June pledging to scrap the politics of confrontation to ease Iran’s international isolation. The powers want the Islamic Republic to stop higher-grade enrichment to allay concerns that it would provide Iran a quick path to bomb-grade nuclear fuel. Tehran says it is refining uranium solely to generate more electricity for a rapidly expanding population and to produce isotopes for medicine.
After the first day of talks in Geneva, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi suggested Tehran was prepared to address long-standing calls for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to have wider and more intrusive inspection powers. He also told the official Irna news agency that measures related to its uranium enrichment were part of the Iranian proposal, but hinted the Islamic Republic was not inclined to make its concessions quickly. “Neither of these issues are within the first step (of the Iranian proposal) but form part of our last steps,” he said without elaborating, in comments reported yesterday.
The sequencing of any concessions by Iran and any sanctions relief by the West could prove a stumbling block en route to a landmark, verifiable deal. Western officials have repeatedly said that Iran must suspend enriching uranium to 20 percent fissile purity, their main worry, before sanctions are eased.
“Are we there yet? No, but we need to keep talking,” a Western diplomat said as talks resumed on Wednesday. Israel, Iran’s arch-foe, urged the powers to be tough in the talks by demanding a total shutdown of enrichment and ruling out any early relaxation of sanctions. But it did not repeat veiled threats to bomb Iran if it deems diplomacy pointless.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague underscored Western reluctance to move fast, saying during a trip to Tokyo that any changes in sanctions would only follow action by Iran.
“We are not today in a position to make any changes in those sanctions. Sanctions must continue. Sanctions are important part of bringing Iran to the negotiating table,” he told reporters.
Western diplomats were hesitant to divulge specifics about the negotiations due to sensitivities involved - both in Tehran, where conservative hardliners are sceptical about striking deals that could curtail the nuclear programme, and in Washington, where hawks are reluctant to support swift sanctions relief.
Reuters
