Russia says nuclear deal still possible with Iran

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov today said a deal with Iran on its uranium enrichment programme was still possible before next week’s meeting of the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

“There always is an opportunity to reach an agreement,” the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying in response to a question about whether it was still possible to negotiate an agreement with Iran preventing its referral to the UN Security Council at Monday’s meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Lavrov’s statement in Moscow came even as Iran’s talks with the European Union broke up in Vienna today without any agreement.

Lavrov said a deal would only be possible if Iran resumed a moratorium on uranium enrichment at home and allowed IAEA inspections to continue. He said his deputy, Sergei Kislyak, was in Vienna for more talks on the Iranian nuclear issue.

“Contacts will continue,” Lavrov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Russia has urged Iran to freeze its domestic uranium enrichment programme as a condition for Moscow’s offer to create a joint venture to enrich uranium for Tehran on Russian territory, but Tehran has rejected the demand.

Interfax quoted a Russian diplomat as saying that talks with the Iranian delegation in Moscow this week had produced “elements” that could “be a foundation for a compromise” that would keep the Iranian nuclear dossier within the IAEA and prevent its referral to the UN Security Council.

However, a Russian nuclear agency official said the Moscow talks remained snagged over Iran’s refusal to freeze enrichment at home.

The Iranian negotiator, Ali Larijani, insisted yesterday that bilateral talks should continue on the Russian offer, and warned that Iran’s referral to the UN Security Council – as the United States has demanded – would kill Moscow’s initiative.

In Washington, the US State Department said Iran had only itself to blame for referral of its activities to the UN Security Council.

The Vienna-based IAEA board of governors on Monday could start a process leading to punishment by the UN Security Council, which has the authority to impose sanctions on Iran.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is only to generate power, but many in the West fear Iran is aiming to develop atomic weapons.

Moscow’s offer to have Iran’s uranium enrichment programme transferred to Russia has been backed by the United States and the EU as a way to provide more assurances that Tehran’s atomic program could not be used to build weapons.