Solana cautious on Iranian proposal

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana today reacted cautiously to a proposal from a senior Iranian nuclear official that France enrich Iran’s uranium on Iranian soil to satisfy international demands for foreign supervision of the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.

“That is something we have to analyse in greater detail,” Solana said on the sidelines of aEuropean Union defence ministers’ meeting in Finland. “It’s an interesting thing, but it’s difficult to put it in place.”

Solana said the idea of an international consortium to oversee Iran’s enrichment had long been discussed in his talks with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, but added that the latest Iranian suggestion may lead to an intensification of that line of discussion.

“It’s an idea that was talked about lightly, maybe now we can talk about it more seriously,” he said.

Solana has been leading negotiations with Larijani on behalf of Britain, France, Germany, China, the United States and Russia, which are seeking to persuade Iran to suspend work on processing uranium in return for a package of incentives.

He told reporters his telephone talks with Larijani on Monday night from this Lapland ski resort were constructive but produced no breakthrough.

“It was a conversation that, as always in the last period of time, was cordial in manners and constructive,” he told a news conference.

Solana said there were still some elements yet to be agreed upon, but that talks would continue.

Solana said he had fixed no date for another face-to-face meeting with Larijani, but told reporters he was willing to travel to Tehran, if the Muslim holy month of Ramadan made it more difficult for Larijani to travel.

Mohammad Saeedi, deputy chief of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, told France-Info radio that France could create a consortium for the production in Iran of enriched uranium.

“That way France, through the companies Eurodif and Areva, could control in a tangible way our enrichment activities,” he said. Eurodif is a branch of Areva, a French state-controlled nuclear manufacturer, and was created in part with Iranian backing in the 1970s.

In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said he was surprised by the idea, which he called “totally new for us.”

He reiterated France’s proposal for Solana to start formal negotiations with the Iranians through a “double suspension” – Iran would suspend enrichment and, in exchange, would not be referred to the Security Council for sanctions.

Solana said the time to agree on a deal with the Iranians is limited, but he declined to set any deadline for ending the talks.

“It’s not a fixed timeline, you may see when a negotiation has possibilities and whena negotiation does not have possibilities,” he said. “It’s my obligation to exhaust all the possibilities.”

The United States has warned it will seek sanctions unless the Solana-led talks produce a suspension of Iran’s enrichment activities.

However, Russia and China, which have veto rights at the Security Council, are wary of imposing sanctions.

A senior British official said the Security Council would begin discussing possible economic sanctions against Iran “in the next week or so” unless Iran has a sudden change of heart.

The process of uranium enrichment can be used to produce electricity or build nuclear weapons depending on the level of enrichment.

The US alleges Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons, but Iran contends that its programme is for peaceful purposes.

Areva spokesman Charles Hufnagel said the company was not involved in any negotiations about a possible consortium for enriching Iranian uranium. He added that any discussions involving nuclear cooperation with Iran would be at the government level.

Iran’s participation in Eurodif was reduced after the 1979 revolution, and now Iran has a “purely financial” stake of about 11 percent through a joint French-Iranian company called Sofidif, Hufnagel said.

Eurodif’s plant in the south-eastern town of Pierrelate produces about a quarter of the world’s enriched uranium, for use in nuclear reactors in several countries.

Saeedi’s proposal echoed a similar idea involving Russia. Moscow had sought to defuse the dispute with Iran by offering to conduct all of Iran’s enrichment on Russian soil, but Tehran has refused.