PARIS - With neither Iran nor its European interlocutors prepared to soften their positions on Tehran's determination to push ahead with its nuclear program, the risk of provoking a major international crisis increases.
Iran on the weekend officially rejected as "without value and unacceptable" a proposal by the European Union's so-called Big Three or EU-3 it had received from the ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany in Tehran two days earlier.
"The proposal does not consider Iran's inalienable right to enriching uranium. Not only is it very weak in the field of sound guarantees for cooperation in political, economic, security, technological and nuclear matters contained in the Paris Agreements, but it also contravenes the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Tehran Accords of October 2003 and the Paris Agreements of November 2004 by not accepting uranium-enriching," Hussein Moussavian, a senior Iranian negotiator, had told Mehr news agency earlier.
The EU-3 proposal included offers to help Iran develop civilian nuclear energy and become a major transit route for Central Asian oil. But it denied Iran the right to produce its own nuclear fuel for power reactors.
On Monday, Reuters quoted a senior Iranian official as saying that United Nations inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had arrived at a uranium conversion plant in Isfahan in Iran to install surveillance equipment and oversee the removal of seals in preparation for Tehran resuming work there.
This will bring Iran into direct confrontation with the EU, which has warned that Iran will be referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if it restarted the plant.
The EU-3 have called an emergency meeting of the IAEA board of governors for Tuesday to warn Iran not to resume work at Isfahan.
In response, Moussavian warned, "If the Europeans call an extraordinary meeting it will be a violation of all international rules and they should not expect us to maintain the freeze of our (nuclear) activities."
On August 2, Tehran made its surprising declaration to resume suspended nuclear activities, just days before Mahmud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as the new president.
One day before that, Tehran had officially informed the IAEA about its intention to reactivate works at Isfahan, and asked the agency to dispatch inspectors and technicians to help in taking off seals placed at the installations and place new monitoring devices.
According to some details obtained by Asia Times Online from the 30-page document outlining the EU-3 package offered to Iran, it would give Iran the occasion "to open a new chapter in its relations with the international community". The EU-3 pledged to support Iran's nuclear projects for peaceful uses; provide nuclear power plants and "sustained, long-term" fuel guaranteed by the IAEA, and also the "gradual lifting of obstacles" preventing Iran from getting advanced technologies.
The package also includes all necessary measures concerning the respect of Iranian territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Iran and non-aggression against it; strengthening cooperation in the political and security fields in both the international and regional arenas, including the fight against terrorism and drug smuggling, as well as fostering Iran-EU relations, which includes signing a trade and cooperation agreement and recognizing Iran as a principal source of energy for Europe - all this against Iran's pledge to stop some nuclear activities, above all enriching uranium.
Iran would have to make a "binding commitment" not to pursue fuel-cycle activities other than the construction and operation of light water power and research reactors, stop work at the heavy water reactor in Arak "because such reactors would add to concerns about nuclear proliferation", remain in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and approve the Additional Protocol to the NPT by the end of the current year.
Iran accepted the protocol - which stipulates that international nuclear experts and inspectors can visit at any time, on short notice, any nuclear site, installation or project without restriction - during a meeting in Tehran in October 2003 between Iran's top negotiator Hasan Rohani and the EU-3. But it was not approved by the majlis (parliament), and the new one, controlled by conservatives, has said it will refuse to do so until the Europeans accept Iran's position.
Tehran says it is not afraid of the UN, hoping that Russia, its major nuclear partner which is building Iran's first nuclear-powered reactor in the Persian Gulf port of Bushehr, will veto any move to apply sanctions.
Russian officials have already indicated that the Iranian nuclear issue is not a matter for the Security Council as it does not present a danger to peace and security in the world.
Iran has always insisted that the suspension of enriching uranium - the most important step in producing nuclear energy that can be used for both civilian and military purposes - is "a voluntarily measure taken for a certain period of time to build confidence with the international community". Iran says that it has no intention to build nuclear weapons and that all its nuclear projects are for civilian use, mostly to produce electricity.
But the US, Israel and some European nations are adamant, accusing the ruling Iranian ayatollahs of wanting atomic weapons for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Ahmadinejad, in his confirmation statement last week, and also later when he took an oath in the majlis, avoided entering directly into the nuclear minefield, concentrating instead on domestic issues. "Our people have many problems, in private life, job, employment, the imbalance between revenues and expenses, the troops of educated youngsters who cannot find work, etc. If we can find solutions to these problems, most of the difficulties our nation face would be solved," he said.
"We want peace and justice for all, in the region and in the world. Some governments have been trying to deprive our nation from its legitimate right. Such an attitude creates resistance in people and helps a government supported by the people to stand up to foreign provocations," Ahmadinejad told cheering lawmakers, the majority of them pro-conservatives. "I don't understand why some countries do not want to understand this fact, that Iranian people do not tolerate force."
Diplomats in Vienna believe that the coming to power of a man who wants to revive principles from the 1979 Islamic revolution might encourage hardliners in the ruling establishment to follow the path of North Korea, which has close nuclear and missile-producing cooperation with the Islamic republic.
"This might be a theory explaining the sudden intransigence, if not bellicose attitude, of Tehran vis-a-vis the Europeans, but the similarities are very few and far between the two regimes. In the North Korean crisis, the United States is a direct party, Pyongyang is talking directly to the Americans, despite all their antagonism. But in the case of Iran, Europe is leading the dance, with the Americans sitting on the side seat. North Korea has no regard for the international community, while Iran wants to be recognized as a major regional player," explained Therese Delpech, director of strategic affairs at the French Atomic Energy Commissariat, in the French center-right newspaper Le Figaro.
In Tehran, the hardline daily Keyhan, which usually reflects the views of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday that Iran was not in fact a signatory to the NPT, and criticized the authorities for having allowed the IAEA and the Europeans to deny Iran nuclear technologies.
"The Non-Proliferation Treaty was approved by the United Nations General Assembly at its 1968 session for 25 years. Iran's former regime joined the treaty and the majlis approved the decision. At the end of the treaty's 25 years in 1993, its status became permanent, which the Islamic republic accepted, but the majlis did not approve. Therefore, one can assume that Iran is not a member of the NPT any more since, according to the constitution, to be official, membership must be approved by the majlis."
Safa Haeri is a Paris-based Iranian journalist covering the Middle East and Central Asia.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.)
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