The United States is ready for the first time to join talks with Iran over its nuclear programme, provided Russia and China agree to sanctions if Tehran refuses to limit its atomic ambitions, diplomats told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.
A Western diplomat said the US was “willing to sit at the table with the Iranians” together with the four other permanent United Nations Security Council members plus Germany.
Such talks would focus on a package offering trade, security and technology incentives to Iran in return for guarantees that it will not develop nuclear weapons.
The proposals, drafted by a European Union troika that has negotiated with Iran, are to be discussed at a meeting of world powers on Thursday in Vienna.
The diplomat said Washington would only join multi-party talks “if Russia and China can agree on Thursday to key aspects of the package, including some specific future sanctions if Iran rejects it”.
It is the closest that Washington, which has no diplomatic relations with Tehran, has come to negotiations with Iran, which US President George Bush has branded part of an “axis of evil” seeking weapons of mass destruction.
Washington is now trying to strike a more open tone.
A White House spokesperson said on Tuesday that it was “glad” Iran had voiced a desire to restart talks with the EU troika of Britain, Germany and France.
The diplomat’s comments on the US considering multi-party talks were confirmed by another diplomat from a second member of the UN’s permanent five, made up of Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.
They asked not to be named.
“It’s not a done deal yet, but the US is definitely extending itself to try to get to ‘Yes’,” the first said of possible US participation in talks.
The diplomat said that Nick Burns, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, would represent the US at such negotiations.
The US offer was made at a video conference on Tuesday of political directors from the permanent five plus Germany, the diplomat said, adding that Bush had consulted on Tuesday by phone with the European nations.
Non-proliferation analyst Gary Samore, from the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, told AFP that “US officials are thinking very hard about options to engage Iran”.
But he cautioned that “no one I spoke to is optimistic that these direct talks would lead to an agreement, as Iran seems to be determined to develop industrial-scale uranium enrichment in order to have a weapons option.”
Enriched uranium produces what can be fuel for nuclear power reactors but also, in highly refined form, the raw material for atomic weapons.
Iran has offered to resume talks with the EU trio but insisted it will not abandon enrichment, although this is a condition for a restart.
The deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, was quoted as saying by state news agency Irna that the world must recognise “the reality and irreversibility of Iran’s nuclear activity”.
He said there was a “possibility” of an agreement but warned that “Iranians will not allow nuclear research to be suspended, even for a while”.
Iranian officials have indicated Tehran may be willing to limit itself to research-scale work using only a small number of centrifuges.
But the US position is that even one centrifuge is too much otherwise Iran will acquire the “break-out” capability for making nuclear weapons.
A diplomat said disagreements about the EU-3 package centred around the timing of a Security Council resolution, if one was needed to require Iran to comply, and which would open the door to sanctions.
According to an early draft text seen by AFP, which was being revised, the possible sanctions include an arms embargo on Iran — something Russia, a key arms supplier to Iran, and China, a major consumer of Iranian oil, resist.
On the benefits side, the EU-3 proposal says world powers should help Iran build light-water reactors for its civilian nuclear energy programme. — AFP