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| Wednesday, 15 December 2004 |
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Iran nuclear chief hails 'new chapter' with Europe after talks TEHRAN, Tuesday (AFP) Iran's top nuclear official Hassan Rowhani hailed a "new chapter" in relations between Tehran and Europe, after his first talks with key EU ministers following an accord on Iran's nuclear plans. Rowhani, speaking after talks with the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain, said he hoped they presage a "new chapter, not only with the three European countries, but with Europe as a whole." "If the two sides pursue these negotiations in good faith I think the two sides will arrive at a new stage," he told reporters. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw added: "We are now able to move forward to the next phase," confirming that working groups of officials from both sides would pursue talks starting immediately. "We are all committed to the successful outcome of the process which began in Iran 14 months ago," when Tehran first reached agreement with the so-called E3 on its uranium enrichment activities. Straw said that a key purpose of the talks would be to determine "that Iran's nuclear program can only be used for peaceful purposes." Under an agreement struck last month in Paris, Iran pledged to suspend all uranium enrichment activities, in return for promises for trade, technology and security rewards. The United States, which charges that Iran is using the Paris agreement to gain time to enable it to secretly develop nuclear weapons, has not yet supported the EU initiative with Iran but is not opposing it. The accord, endorsed by the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), promises Tehran trade, technology and security rewards in return for fully suspending enrichment, a crucial fuel-making process that can also be used to make atomic weapons. Diplomats said the talks could not succeed unless Washington eventually took part, since Iran could not join the World Trade Organization (WTO), for example, or receive regional security guarantees without US support. The EU negotiators from Britain, France and Germany had refused at an IAEA meeting in Vienna last month to let Iran withhold 20 centrifuges - the machines that enrich uranium - from the freeze in order to do research, saying the halt must be total and involve all related enrichment activities. The Iranian demand had threatened to scupper the agreement. "We'll be discussing ... the full implementation of the Paris agreement," Straw said, adding: "The words of the Paris agreement mean what they say." But in Tehran, government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh said Iran was sticking to its demand that 20 centrifuges be excluded. "The question of halting research is not on the agenda," he said. Straw said the European trio and Iran would be setting up "three working groups to take forward the Paris agreement." The working groups cover incentives Iran is to be offered over the long term. One group is in technology, economics and cooperation, another in nuclear issues and a third in politics and security, diplomats said. In return for "objective guarantees" that it will not develop the bomb, Iran has been offered incentives such as help in joining the WTO and in obtaining a light water research reactor. Tehran would in turn abandon plans to build a heavy water reactor that would be more capable of producing bomb-grade material. |
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