Iran nuclear negotiator digs heels in over right to enrich uranium

Senior negotiator at Geneva nuclear talks dashes hope of possible compromise offered by Mohammad Javad Zarif

Julian Borger and Saeed Kamali Dehghan in Geneva

Iran entrenched its position at nuclear talks in Geneva on Thursday, insisting it would not sign an agreement that did not have specific guarantees of its right to enrich uranium.

The issue is one of the thorniest at the negotiations and one of the main reasons the last round of talks here broke up without agreement on 10 November despite intense bargaining by ministers including the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

This week Zarif appeared to offer a concession on the issue, saying Iran did not need international approval to carry on enriching uranium as it was already an international right guaranteed under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

But a senior Iranian negotiator at the talks denied there had been any give in the Iranian position. "If this element is not in the text, it is unacceptable to us. Without that, there will be no agreement," the negotiator said.

The 1968 NPT is vague on the subject. It guarantees the nation's right to a peaceful nuclear programme, without mentioning enrichment specifically. Signatories are also obliged not to develop weapons and to agree on inspection regimes with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A possible compromise had been floated in the days running up the latest Geneva talks in which text of the agreement would mention NPT rights and the various parties would interpret that in their own way. However, the Iranian negotiator said that would not be enough for Tehran.

"It is because there are different interpretations of the NPT that there is a need to spell it out in the text," he said. "We are trying to find language that is the least problematic for all parties, but what is essential is the element of enrichment."

Western states acknowledge that they will have to accept some degree of Iranian enrichment as a fait accompli in any interim agreement - which is the focus of the Geneva agreement currently being negotiated and that will aim to slow down, stop or reverse different elements of the nuclear programme in exchange for limited sanction relief.

However, Washington and its allies, particularly France, do not want to put that acceptance in writing, lest it serve as a legal precedent for global proliferation. Enrichment of uranium is a dual-use technology – it can produce fuel for nuclear power stations, but also weapons-grade fissile material for warheads.

The Iranian official at the talks said he had not read Zarif's earlier, apparently conciliatory remarks on enrichment. Western officials at the talks say the Iranian delegation have stressed how much pressure they have been under at home from hardliners. Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, declared on the eve of the new round in Geneva that the negotiators had been set strict red lines on what they could accept.

Zarif met the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, on Thursday morning for detailed talks on the current draft agreement, which has disputed paragraphs in brackets, and negotiators said the general atmosphere was positive. Contingency preparations have been made for Kerry and foreign ministers from the other five nations at the talks – the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China – to fly to Switzerland at short notice if a deal is near.

However, France signalled on Wednesday that it would stick to its tough line on Iran and was not ready to make more concessions. Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister, said he hoped a deal could be clinched but added: "This agreement can only be possible based on firmness. For now, the Iranians have not been able to accept the position of the six. I hope they will accept it."

The Iranian official said that in contrast to the last round of talks, when Fabius openly voiced its objections to a draft text, the six-nation group had stayed united on this occasion and let Ashton talk on their behalf. "The French are no longer in the forefront of negotiations," he said.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi told the Iranian news agency ISNA: "From negotiations with Mrs Ashton we want to see if we can begin talks about the text. If we conclude that talks can have results, we will then enter negotiations with the [six-nation group]."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/21/iran-geneva-nuclear-talks-enrich-uranium-guarantee