Major powers have offered Iran limited sanctions relief in return for a halt to the most controversial part of its nuclear programme, and Iran has promised to respond with a proposal on the same scale.
The talks in Kazakhstan were the first in eight months between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany – the “P5+1” – on a decade-old dispute that threatens to trigger another war in the Middle East.
Since the last meeting in June Iran has expanded activity the West suspects is aimed at enabling it to build a nuclear bomb, something Israel has suggested it will prevent by force if diplomacy fails.
The two-day negotiations in the city of Almaty follow inconclusive meetings last year in Istanbul, Baghdad and Moscow.
US secretary of state John Kerry said in Berlin he hoped Iran would “move down the path of a diplomatic solution”.
A western official who declined to be named said the talks had been “useful” and confirmed they would continue today as scheduled.
But with Iran’s political elite preoccupied with worsening infighting before a presidential election in June, few believe the meeting will yield a quick breakthrough.
“It is clear that nobody expects to come from Almaty with a fully done deal,” said a spokesman for the European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who oversees contacts with Iran on behalf of world powers.
Offer presented
A US official said on Monday the offer to Iran – an updated version of one rejected last year – would take into account its recent nuclear advances, but also take “some steps in the sanctions arena”.
This would address some of Iran’s concerns, but not meet its demand that all sanctions be lifted, the official said.
A western official later said the powers had formally presented the offer during yesterday’s talks but gave no details.
In Almaty, a source close to the Iranian negotiators told reporters: “Depending on what proposal we receive from the other side we will present our own proposal of the same weight. The continuation of talks depends on how this exchange . . . goes forward.”
Iranian media also said the talks would continue, without saying whether the Iranian proposal had been presented.
At best, diplomats and analysts say, Iran will take the joint offer from the US, Russia, France, Germany, Britain and China seriously and agree to hold further talks soon on steps to ease the tension.
But Iran, whose chief negotiator Saeed Jalili is close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is a veteran of Iran’s 1980s war against Iraq, has shown no willingness to scale back its nuclear work.
It argues it has a sovereign right to carry out enrichment for energy purposes. It refuses to close its underground Fordow enrichment plant, a condition the powers have set for any sanctions relief.
Faster enrichment
A UN nuclear watchdog report last week said Iran was installing advanced centrifuges that would allow it to speed up its enrichment of uranium, which can have both civilian and military purposes.
Tightening western sanctions on Iran over the last 14 months are hurting the economy. Its currency has more than halved in value, which has pushed up inflation.
The central bank governor was quoted on Monday as saying inflation was likely to top 30 per cent in coming weeks as the sanctions contribute to shortages and stockpiling.
Western officials said their offer would include an easing of restrictions on trade in gold and other precious metals if Tehran closed Fordow.
–(Reuters)