EU Grants Iran Talks Before IAEA Meet 
By Reuters
March 2, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-iran.html

VIENNA (Reuters) - EU powers said on Thursday they had agreed to last-minute talks with Iran on Friday before a U.N. nuclear watchdog meeting that could spawn U.N. Security Council steps against Tehran over concerns it seeks atom bombs.
But ``EU3'' diplomats held out scant hope of a breakthrough in their first direct contact with Iran since December, noting Tehran was defiantly accelerating uranium enrichment work and declining to embrace a Russian proposal to defuse the crisis.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, fresh from inconclusive talks in Moscow on an offer to enrich uranium for Iran in Russia to pre-empt diversions into bombmaking, announced he would see British, French and German envoys before March 6.
That is the date when the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors will meet to weigh a report by the IAEA chief saying essentially that Iran had ignored a February 4 board call to re-suspend enrichment work to regain world trust.
Instead Iran is test-feeding uranium gas into centrifuges, which purify it into fuel for nuclear reactors or, potentially, bombs, and plans to start installing 3,000 centrifuges later this year in a thrust toward ``industrial-scale'' enrichment.
Tehran denies Western suspicions of a covert bomb project and the IAEA has found no hard proof arms are being developed. Iran says it wants only nuclear-generated electricity but it hid atomic work for 18 years and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly called for Israel's destruction.
Britain and Germany confirmed a meeting of foreign ministers with Larijani was set for Friday in Vienna at his request.
``We will listen to what Iran has to say but we have no new proposals,'' said a British Foreign Office spokesman.
EU3 diplomats said Larijani would be again told Iran must return to complete suspension of enrichment-related work including conversions of uranium ore, the first step in the process, to win fresh negotiations on trade incentives.
An EU3 diplomat, who like others asked not to be identified due to the subject's delicacy, said his side was ``not optimistic there will be any outcome, not least because there has clearly been no breakthrough with Russia.''
``We agreed to this meeting only reluctantly. But we decided to show the EU3 format is still on the table since Iran had pronounced it dead,'' said another EU3 diplomat in Vienna.
Larijani said Iran sought another hearing with the EU as ''we believe our programs are clear and defensible'' but warned Russia's proposal would die if the Security Council intervened. 
IRAN ALREADY REPORTED TO SECURITY COUNCIL
The IAEA board reported Iran to the Council on February 4 but on the condition the foremost world body on war and peace took no measures until after nuclear watchdog's session next week.
``Negotiations with Russia were constructive and effective ... (but) the Russian proposal needs to become more mature ...,'' Larijani told IRNA news agency, apparently objecting to Moscow's insistence Iran re-suspend enrichment work as part of the deal.
``Russia's proposal will be the first victim of referring our case to the Security Council. This move will make the situation more critical and reduce our cooperation with the IAEA.''
Iranian leaders have been combing the world with diplomacy trying to slow momentum toward Security Council action, hoping to capitalize on non-Western opposition led by Russia and China to imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
EU3 diplomats said foreign ministers would also have consultations with IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei.
ElBaradei is concerned that engaging the Security Council may drive Iran into a corner and yield only deadlock given that veto-wielding Russia and China reject calls for sanctions.
The EU3 froze dialogue with Iran in January after it broke a 2-1/2-year moratorium on enrichment activity.
In a report sent to the board this week and to be forwarded to the Council, ElBaradei said too many questions remained after three years of IAEA investigations for the agency to be able to certify Iran had no illicit bomb agenda.
He said Iran's decision to end short notice U.N. inspections in retaliation for being reported to the Security Council would make it all the harder to do so.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, had urged Japan to work with Washington to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo's plans to develop an Iranian oil field.
Bolton said Iran was using its position ``very skillfully'' as a major oil exporter as leverage in talks with other nations.
Iran's resistance to pressure to curb nuclear activity is based in part on confidence that Russia and China, both with huge trade stakes in the Islamic Republic, will block Western efforts to have the Security Council isolate it with sanctions.