WORLD / Middle East

World powers give Iran enrichment leeway
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-08 09:00

In a major concession, world powers are no longer demanding that Iran commit to a prolonged moratorium on uranium enrichment and are now asking only for a suspension during talks on its nuclear program, diplomats and officials said Wednesday.


Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath seen during their meeting in Moscow, Wednesday, June 7, 2006. Russia will only support sanctions against Iran if it violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Lavrov said Wednesday, apparently dampening hopes of a united international front if Tehran rejects a compromise package over its nuclear activities. [AP]

The proposal and a connected offer to allow continued uranium conversion are part of an effort to avoid a showdown over international concerns that the Iranians are trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Backing off the previous stance on enrichment signals a possible readiness by the United States and key allies to accept some limited form of enrichment by Iran, despite years of warnings from Washington that Tehran wanted such technology to make atomic warheads.

Iran insists its nuclear program is intended only to produce power, arguing it needs enrichment technology to produce fuel for atomic reactors that would generate electricity.

Since talks between European nations and Iran broke off last August, the public stance by the European negotiators and the United States has been that Iran must commit to a long-term halt in enrichment as a precondition for talks.

Still, a diplomat said that despite the concession, a long-term moratorium remained the preferred goal of the six nations that approved a package of incentives for the Tehran regime last week, the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.

Beyond that, the talks are meant to reach agreement on what kind of nuclear activities Iran can conduct under conditions that dispel fears it wants a military program.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who presented the offer to Iranian officials this week, said Wednesday that the issue of enrichment would have to be reassessed once talks were completed.

"In principle ... they will have to stop now, we will have to negotiate with no process of enrichment in place," he told reporters in Germany. "After the finalization of the negotiations we will see what happens."

Solana said the incentive offer came with "no specific timeframe," but that he expected an Iranian answer within "weeks."
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