Iran-EU Talks Resume, India Shrugs off US Pressures
"The doors for negotiation are open and we can still find a formula to reach a conclusion," said Asefi.
TEHRAN, January 29, 2006 – Iran will resume on Monday, January 30, talks with Britain, France and Germany on its nuclear program, as India shrugged off on Sunday, January 29, US pressures to vote against Iran at the upcoming meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Official media said the Iranian delegation would be headed by senior nuclear negotiator Javad Vaidi, but gave no details on the agenda for the discussions, which will come just days before the IAEA emergency meeting, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The doors for negotiation are open and we can still find a formula to reach a conclusion," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
The EU-3 and the United States are pushing IAEA members to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, claiming Tehran is using a nuclear energy drive as a cover for weapons development.
Asefi dismissed the IAEA meeting, scheduled for February 2, as "politicized" and said "dealing with Iran's case outside the IAEA will not solve anything".
Pressures on Iran were heightened earlier this month when the country announced it was suspending a voluntary moratorium and resuming sensitive nuclear research work.
Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is for strictly peaceful purposes, and says it is cooperating with a now three-year-old IAEA investigation.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Saturday, January 28, that diplomacy was still possible even as other leaders made clear that bringing Iran before the Security Council for possible sanctions was still very much on the cards.
Asefi said talks with Russia on a potential compromise needed more time.
"It can be a useful plan if seen as a package. The plan needs more work on it," added the spokesman.
Moscow's idea to enrich uranium outside Iran is seen as a possible solution to the standoff and has received cautious and conditional support from the US and the EU.
Moscow is proposing that sensitive nuclear fuel work -- which could potentially be diverted to produce nuclear weapons – be conducted outside the Islamic republic as a way of preventing Iran from acquiring bomb-making technology but also guaranteeing its access to nuclear energy.
Iran has repeatedly said it would never abandon its drive to enrich uranium on its own soil.
But in a bid to allay increased international tension, Tehran has signaled a leaning towards accepting the compromise solution.
Defiant India
In a related development, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted Sunday that his country will not be pressured into voting against Iran in this week's IAEA meeting.
"We will do what is right for the country. India's national interest is the prime concern whether it is domestic or foreign policy," Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
"We will not come under pressure. We will do the right thing for the country. Our prime concern is to protect and safeguard India's enlightened national interest," he added.
US Ambassador in New Delhi David Mulford warned last week that a historic deal to provide India with American nuclear technology might fall through unless it votes against Iran at the IAEA meeting.
Mulford said a prospective deal for the United States to transfer civilian nuclear technology to India would "die" in the US Congress if India voted against a resolution on Iran.
During the IAEA meeting in Vienna in September, India voted with the United States, Britain, France and Germany to chide Iran for its nuclear program.
The US is also pressuring Russia and China, both veto-wielding Security Council members, to back the referral of the Iranian file to the Security Council.
Experts say Russia and China face important strategic setbacks if the Iran nuclear issue is referred to the Security Council, and will fight behind the scenes to prevent this.
Courtesy:-www.islamonline.net
