EU-Iran nuclear talks fail
ISN SECURITY WATCH (Friday, 3 March: 14.35 CET) – Negotiations between Iranian and European diplomats on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program ended without agreement on Friday, ministers said.
In comments carried by the Associated Press, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters: "Unfortunately we were not able to reach an agreement."
Douste-Blazy said that the EU-3 ministers had demanded "full and complete suspension" of uranium enrichment and related activities
His German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed that the meeting ended "without achieving a result".
Steinmeier, Douste-Blazy and a senior British official held two hours of discussions with a delegation led by chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to meet on Monday to decide whether to refer Iran to the UN Security Council over its failure to comply with its nuclear commitments.
The IAEA board voted in favor of referral on 4 February but gave Iran a month to demonstrate a commitment to ending enrichment activities.
There are fears that if Iran masters the full nuclear fuel cycle through autonomous, large-scale uranium enrichment, it will then have made a significant leap required for the fabrication of nuclear weapons.
Iran strenuously denies that it intends to create nuclear weapons.
A breakthrough appeared to have been made on Sunday with the announcement that Russian-Iranian negotiations had produced a joint venture agreement for uranium enrichment.
However, subsequent statements by Iranian officials, confirming that their country would push ahead with uranium processing under any such deal, and a lack of further progress in Russian-Iranian negotiations on the plan make an IAEA referral likely.
Larijani confirmed that an IAEA decision to send the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council would kill off the enrichment joint venture.
In comments carried by the Associated Press, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters: "Unfortunately we were not able to reach an agreement."
Douste-Blazy said that the EU-3 ministers had demanded "full and complete suspension" of uranium enrichment and related activities
His German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed that the meeting ended "without achieving a result".
Steinmeier, Douste-Blazy and a senior British official held two hours of discussions with a delegation led by chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to meet on Monday to decide whether to refer Iran to the UN Security Council over its failure to comply with its nuclear commitments.
The IAEA board voted in favor of referral on 4 February but gave Iran a month to demonstrate a commitment to ending enrichment activities.
There are fears that if Iran masters the full nuclear fuel cycle through autonomous, large-scale uranium enrichment, it will then have made a significant leap required for the fabrication of nuclear weapons.
Iran strenuously denies that it intends to create nuclear weapons.
A breakthrough appeared to have been made on Sunday with the announcement that Russian-Iranian negotiations had produced a joint venture agreement for uranium enrichment.
However, subsequent statements by Iranian officials, confirming that their country would push ahead with uranium processing under any such deal, and a lack of further progress in Russian-Iranian negotiations on the plan make an IAEA referral likely.
Larijani confirmed that an IAEA decision to send the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council would kill off the enrichment joint venture.
posted by Marko at 3/03/2006 08:02:00 AM
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