Iran shows readiness to rein in nuclear activity

IRAN has indicated a readiness to scale back its most sensitive nuclear activity in a clear signal it is willing to compromise with the West to win relief from harsh sanctions, diplomats said yesterday.

However, the details of Iran’s proposals, put forward during negotiations with six world powers in Geneva have not been made public and western officials were cautious whether Tehran was willing to go far enough to nail down a deal.

Another round of talks between Iran, the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany was expected to be scheduled in the coming weeks to try to end a protracted standoff that could boil over into a new Middle East war.

Both sides sought to lower expectations of any rapid deal at the meeting yesterday, the first since President Hassan Rouhani took office promising conciliation over confrontation in Iran’s relations with the world.

The powers want the Islamic state to rein in enrichment activity to allay concerns that it could be applied to developing nuclear bombs rather than, as Tehran says, to generating electricity and producing isotopes for medicine.

After the first day of talks in Geneva, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi suggested Tehran was prepared to address long-standing calls to give the United Nations nuclear watchdog wider inspection powers.

But he hinted that Tehran was not inclined to make its concessions quickly.

“Neither of these issues are within the first step (of the Iranian proposal) but form part of our last steps,” he said without elaborating, in comments yesterday.

The sequence of any concessions by Iran and any sanctions relief by the West could prove a serious obstacle en route to any breakthrough agreement. Western officials have said repeatedly that Iran must suspend enriching uranium to 20% fissile purity, their main concern, before sanctions are eased.

“Are we there yet? No, but we need to keep talking,” a western diplomat said as talks resumed yesterday. Israel, Iran’s arch-foe, urged the powers to be tough in the talks by demanding a total shutdown of enrichment and ruling out any early relaxation of sanctions.

But the Jewish state did not repeat veiled threats to bomb Iran if it deems diplomacy pointless.

Western diplomats were hesitant to divulge specifics about the negotiations due to sensitivities involved — both in Tehran, where conservative hardliners are sceptical about striking deals that could curtail the nuclear programme, and in Washington, where hawks are reluctant to support swift sanctions relief.

But Iran, diplomats said, has made much more concrete proposals — in contrast with the ideological lectures and obfuscations that dogged previous meetings — to the point that its negotiators were concerned about details being aired in public before they had a chance to sell them in Tehran.

Diplomats said the other proposals Iranian envoys had made regarding eventual “confidence-building” steps include halting 20% enriched uranium production and possibly converting at least some of existing 20% stockpiles — material that worries the powers because it is only a short technical stage away from weaponsgrade fuel — to uranium oxide.

But Iran did not intend to renounce all enrichment itself “under any circumstances”, the Russian state news agency RIA quoted an Iranian source as saying.

He was dismissing the maximum demand of US and Israeli hawks which western diplomats concede would undermine Mr Rouhani’s authority at home.

“Apart from suspending 20% enrichment, it is possible to consider a scenario involving reducing the number of centrifuges (enriching uranium),” RIA quoted the delegate as saying.

Yesterday’s talks started with some delay, as delegations from the six nations met separately with Iranian envoys in a bid to get more details of its suggestions. “There is still an awful lot of work to be done,” said a spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who oversees diplomacy with Iran on behalf of the six.