New Delhi, February 5
The Iranian crystal ball turned denser and foggier today with Tehran’s announcement of ending all its voluntary cooperation with the IAEA in retaliation to the UN nuclear watchdog yesterday referring the Iranian nuclear file to the UN Security Council. Now, the focus has turned to Iran-Russia talks in Moscow on February 16 to discuss the Russian formula.
Iran watchers here say that the Russian formula is the only window of opportunity currently open for Tehran to avert a showdown with the international community and if this opportunity was not utilised it would pave the way for political, diplomatic and economic sanctions by the Security Council on Iran in foreseeable future.
Under the Russian formula, Moscow has proposed to enrich Iranian uranium in Russian territory and ship the low-enriched uranium back to Iran for nuclear energy usage. Low-enriched uranium is good enough for power generation but if uranium is highly enriched — known as highly enriched uranium (HEU) in technical jargon — it can be used for making atomic weapons.
The Russian formula is viewed as a practical solution to take care of the Iranian aspirations for nuclear energy applications and the international community’s reservations about Tehran’s nuclear programme.
While Iran continued with its sabre-rattling today, the Iran watchers here discern a marked softening in Tehran’s stance. One evidence of it is the Iranian Government’s categoric announcement that it will go ahead with its talks with Russia, a reversal of another Iranian announcement a couple of days ago. Moreover, an Associated Press news story from Tehran quoted the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying that Iran was open to negotiations on Moscow’s proposal that Iran shift its plan for large-scale enrichment of uranium to Russian territory.
Mr Asefi was also quoted by AP as saying that Iran would cooperate with the IAEA within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Safeguard Agreement. As regards the Russian proposal, Mr Asefi was quoted as saying:”The proposal has to conform with the new
circumstances. If the Russian proposal makes itself compatible with the new conditions, it can be negotiated.”
For over two and a half years, the EU-3 (France, the UK and Germany) has been trying to persuade Iran to give up its fuel cycle ambitions and accept nuclear fuel from abroad, but Tehran has made it clear that any proposal that did not guarantee Iran’s access to peaceful nuclear technology would lead to the cessation of all nuclear-related negotiations with the EU-3.
In June 2005, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Deputy Director Pierre Goldschmidt stated that Iran admitted to providing incorrect information about past experiments involving plutonium. Tehran claimed all such research ceased in 1993.
