Translated material
Together again
Javier Solana and Ali Larijani met in Berlin
Yesterday, the High Representative of the European Union for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, and his permanent partner in negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Ali Larijani, met at the residence of the German Foreign Ministry on the shores of Lake Tegel on the outskirts of Berlin. Diplomatic sources in Brussels and Tehran have already announced talks twice this month, only to have them postponed at the last minute or replaced by a meeting of experts. But now the diplomatic resolution of the dispute over the Iranian atom has again taken on real shape. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said yesterday: “Given the atmosphere of mutual understanding between Iran and Europe, we can be optimistic about its outcome.” His German colleague Frank Walter Steinmeier said that he did not expect to achieve a result as early as Wednesday, and suggested that Solana and Larijani would continue negotiations today.Germany occupies a special place among the participants in negotiations on the Iranian problem. Not being a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Berlin does not have the right to veto in the event of a vote on a resolution with anti-Iranian sanctions. However, the Germans are participating in negotiations with Iran as part of the Eurotroika (which also includes Great Britain and France). “The current meeting represents part of our efforts aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program,” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jäger recalled yesterday. Russia also advocates resolving the problem through negotiations without ultimatums and sanctions.
The current debate is focused on the timing and conditions for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. Adopted on July 31 by the UN Security Council, Resolution No. 1696 demanded that Tehran, within a month, “suspend all work related to the enrichment and processing of uranium, including scientific research and development.”
The Iranians ignored the UN Security Council demand, but in mid-August they responded to the “six” international negotiators (Russia, the USA, China and the Euro-three countries), who in early June promised Tehran light water nuclear reactors, fuel for nuclear power plants and advanced industrial technologies in exchange to suspend independent uranium enrichment. Ali Larijani said that there were ambiguities in the “six” proposals and proposed resuming negotiations as soon as possible. Yesterday, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Gholamali Haddad Adel, said that the country “will not accept the suspension of uranium enrichment as a precondition for negotiations,” but at the same time “is ready to discuss this issue if negotiations resume.”
“The renewed negotiations between Iran and the Euro-troika testify to the correctness of the Europeans’ current approach to the Iranian nuclear problem,” Nina Mamedova, head of the Iran sector at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in an interview with Vremya Novostey. “As soon as Europe abandoned its ultimatum pressure on Tehran, offered it modern technologies and agreed not to insist on suspending enrichment as an indispensable condition for negotiations, Iran also showed its readiness to make concessions,” the expert believes.
Iran, in addition, according to the American press, hinted at the possibility of a temporary (for three months) suspension of enrichment work just for the period of negotiations. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that the West actually suggested that his country suspend uranium enrichment “for one day” under the pretext of some technical problems. “Suspend the enrichment work externally and thereby help us say that Iran has agreed to the suspension,” was the formula used by the Iranian president to describe the proposal made to his country. At the same time, he repeated that “no one has the right to deprive the Iranian nation of its rights” to a peaceful atom.
“The best way out of the situation for Europe, Iran and even the United States would be to freeze uranium enrichment for several months and simultaneously move to full-scale negotiations between the Six and Iran,” Nina Mamedova noted to Vremya Novostei.