Iran Mentions New Plan at Nuclear Talks as Stalemate Continues
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Iran’s expansive language about a “comprehensive” solution has
previously seemed to dim, rather than improve, the prospects for an
agreement.
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: April 5, 2013
ALMATY, Kazakhstan — As negotiations resumed here on Friday between Iran
and the six world powers demanding that it curb its nuclear program,
Iran said it had put forward a new “comprehensive proposal” that it
hoped would “establish a new bedrock for cooperation.”
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The other negotiators, however, described Iran’s statement as a
bewildering surprise and said they had not received any concrete new
proposal. An afternoon negotiating session ended with little sign of
additional clarity, and though officials said the talks would continue
on Saturday, they seemed to have hit a roadblock.
A Western official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the
Iranian remarks essentially echoed a position articulated at talks in
Moscow last June. “We are somewhat puzzled by the Iranians’
characterization of what they presented at this morning’s plenary,” the
official said. “There were some interesting but not fully explained
general comments on our ideas.”
The announcement of a new proposal, by Ali Baqeri, deputy head of the
Iranian delegation, came after the opening session of talks as Iranian
officials took a break for lunch and prayers. Mr. Baqeri did not offer
any details. In the past, expansive language about a “comprehensive”
solution has involved additional complicated issues, like the civil war
in Syria, that seemed to dim rather than improve the prospects for an
agreement.
With American and European officials demanding that Iran show
willingness to address international concerns, Mr. Baqeri suggested that
the Iranian delegation had gone even further. “These steps are referred
to as confidence-building measures, but they are part of a
comprehensive set of measures,” he said at a news conference at a
central Almaty hotel. “This is not distinct from that comprehensive
step.”
But at a second briefing at the end of the day’s talks, Mr. Baqeri
acknowledged that the proposal put on the table had roughly the same
contours as the plan offered in Moscow. “The Islamic republic of Iran
this morning proposed a practical method to implement the Moscow plan in
a smaller scale,” he said.
Expectations for this latest round of negotiations have been modest at
best, with little sign that the Iranian government was ready to accept
an offer made by the six powers at the last round of talks in February:
restrictions on its supply of dangerous enriched uranium in exchange for
a modest easing of international sanctions.
“We had a long and substantial discussion on the issues, but we remain a
long way apart on the substance,” a Western diplomat said Friday. “We
are now evaluating the situation and will meet again tomorrow.”
Although American and European officials arrived expressing guarded hope
of a breakthrough, the lead Iranian negotiator began his visit with a
speech to university students in which he insisted on his country’s
unfettered right to develop a civilian nuclear program and accused the
larger powers of hypocrisy because they have nuclear arms.
In the speech, at Al-Farabi Kazakh International University on Thursday,
the Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said that it was possible to
“unlock” the stalemate in the talks if the international negotiators —
Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — would
simply “accept the inalienable rights” of Iran, specifically the right
to enrich uranium.
In complaining of hypocrisy, Mr. Jalili singled out the United States
for criticism and called the new round of talks here “a test for
American behavior.”
But American and European officials have insisted that the test is for
Iran, which must respond to an offer presented here in Almaty at the
last talks in February and explained in greater detail at a meeting with
technical experts in Istanbul last month
“How far we get,” a senior Obama administration official said before
leaving Washington for Almaty, “depends on what the Iranians come back
with in terms of a response on the substance to our proposal.”
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That proposal would impose constraints on Iran’s supply of enriched
uranium and require Iran to shut its enrichment plant at Fordo, which is
built deep underneath a mountain. Iran would also have to agree to a
series of steps making it more difficult to resume producing nuclear
fuel quickly. The proposal would allow Iran to keep a small amount of
uranium enriched to 20 percent purity for use in a reactor to produce
medical isotopes. Such uranium can be converted to weapons grade with
relatively modest additional processing.
While Iran says its nuclear program is exclusively for civilian
purposes, Western officials suspect that Tehran is seeking the
technology for nuclear weapons.
As the talks opened Friday, Michael Mann, the spokesman for Catherine
Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and chairwoman of the
group of six powers, said: “What we are hoping is that the Iranian side
will come back to us today with a clear and concrete response.” Mr.
Mann, speaking at a news conference, declined to speculate on the
response should Iran initially not offer a concrete counterproposal
early in the session. But he said the process at this point hinged on
the Iranian side.
“The confidence-building measure has to come from Iran,” Mr. Mann said.
Iran is in the midst of a contentious presidential election, a process
that inevitably complicates any negotiations in the international arena.
The senior Obama administration official said that so long as Iran
remained in defiance of the international community, painful sanctions
including Western restrictions on importing Iranian oil would remain in
place and potentially become even more severe. “That pressure only will
increase if Iran does not begin to take concrete steps and concrete
actions,” the official said. “Sanctions as well as the isolation Iran
has created for itself continue to have their effect, and oil importers
have continued to make reductions.”
The official noted Iranian statistics showing inflation has soared by
31.5 percent over the past year and continues to rise. The value of its
currency, the rial, has plummeted since sanctions began.
As in February, the negotiations are taking place in Kazakhstan, the
former Soviet republic that was once the main site for testing of
nuclear weapons by the Soviet Union. It takes pride in its role on the
issue of nuclear nonproliferation, including the elimination of missiles
left behind by the Soviets.
Russian and Chinese officials have been more restrained in their comments ahead of the current round of talks.
Earlier this week, a deputy Russian foreign minister, Igor Morgulov,
said that an agreement ultimately would have to recognize Iran’s right
to the use of atomic power for energy and medicine. Russia has been a
partner in the construction and operation of Iran’s existing Bushehr
nuclear power plant.
“We believe a long-term settlement should be based on the recognition of
Iran’s unconditional right to develop its civilian nuclear program,
including the right to enrich uranium” provided that all nuclear
activity is put under supervision of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, Mr. Morgulov told the Interfax news agency.
Mr. Morgulov said that the Russian delegation was working in close
consultation with its Chinese counterparts. “We highly value a close
dialogue with China on the situation surrounding the Iranian nuclear
program,” he said. “Our positions coincide in many aspects.”
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, however, said expectations
were modest for the Almaty talks. “Regrettably, the sides have not yet
started to move toward formulating compromise-based agreements,” the
spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in Moscow on Thursday.
Gary Samore, who oversaw nuclear arms control issues for the White House
during the first Obama administration and is now executive director for
research of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at
Harvard University, said in Washington this week that he had very low
expectations for the talks and that both sides had reasons to prolong
the diplomatic wrangling.
“The Iranians use diplomacy in an effort to try to show that there’s
progress and therefore no further sanctions are justified, and to the
extent that it looks like there’s progress it helps maintain the value
of the rial,” Mr. Samore said, while the United States and its partners
“use diplomacy in order to demonstrate that Iran is being intransigent
and unreasonable and therefore more sanctions are required.”
“That process is going to continue,” Mr. Samore added.
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