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Sign of discreet progress in Iran nuclear talks

Iran nuclear talks: a thin, faint chink of light,   byJulian Borger, 6 July 2012 guardian.co.uk Iranian negotiators have presented an uncompromising stance on paper but informally they hint a deal could still be done The official talks between Iran and six major powers continue to creep forward with no sign of progress. Technical experts met in Istanbul

on Tuesday to thrash out the science involved in the negotiations, but
the rift between the two sides is wide and essentially political. The next step is supposed to be a meeting between mid-level diplomats –
the deputy EU foreign policy representative, Helga Schmid, and her
Iranian counterpart, Ali Bagheri, more to keep the conversation going
than in any genuine sense of forward movement.

Meanwhile, the fullest exposition of the Iranian position to date has
surfaced in the form of a document presented at the Iranian mission to the UN on Tuesday to a group of US nuclear experts, at the same time as the Istanbul meeting…… The central demand is that the six powers openly recognise Iran’s right to enrich uranium, in return for which the Islamic Republic would “emphasise once again ..its commitments under the NPT and its opposition to nuclear weapons based on the Supreme Leader’s fatwa against such weapons”.

In other words, iran wants the international community to allow it’s programme go forward without restrictions in return for the Supreme Leader’s promise not to make bombs.

However, Jim Walsh , a non-proliferation expert at MIT who was at Tuesday’s presentation, said you had to be in the room to fully appreciate the message being sent. “The oral presentation was much softer,” Walsh insisted.

He said that ambassador Mohammad Khazaee and his team suggested for the first time that the heavy water reactor Iran is building in Arak, which could be a source of weapons grade plutonium when operational, could be replaced by a light water reactor, which would much less of a proliferation concern.

More immediately, he said the Iranian diplomats appeared open to the possibility of future curbs on 20% enrichment in the right circumstances. However, Iran has no incentive to float such a concession if sanctions relief is not on the table………

Walsh came away from New York believing a deal was possible – curbs on 20% enrichment in return for sanctions relief, and the right to enrich in return for transparency with the IAEA and strict monitoring. ……http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/julian-borger-global-security-blog/2012/jul/06/iran-nuclear-talks

July 7, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international