30 September 2009: AFP
World powers racked up pressure on Iran ahead of crucial nuclear talks on Thursday, amid growing concern about the covert build up of Tehran's nuclear program.
European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana will conduct the talks with the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, along with senior officials from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States in the Swiss city of Geneva.
Solana stressed ahead of the meeting, the first of its kind for 14 months, that the five permanent powers (P5) in the UN Security Council and Germany wanted guarantees from Tehran on the civilian nature of its nuclear ambitions.
"For the moment we have not obtained the objective of guarantees that the project is only peaceful," Solana said on the sidelines of an EU defence meeting.
He called the talks a "test" of Iran's intentions, as the powers maintained demands for a freeze in Iran's nuclear enrichment in return for a freeze in sanctions.
"I say to Iran as they face a crucial date this week; join the international community now or face isolation," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
Iran has insisted for years that it has a right to civilian nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and to make enriched fuel for power plants - although its first Russian-built and long-delayed nuclear plant is yet to come online.
But its announcement last week of the ongoing construction of another uranium enrichment plant, underground near the Shi'ite holy city of Qom, prompted stern warnings from western capitals led by Washington.
The belated disclosure has also heightened suspicions that Iran is seeking the capability to make atomic weapons, said Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on nuclear non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
"It creates a stronger degree of consensus amongst the P5 on the realisation that Iran's program is not for peaceful purposes, it has a military purpose: that should now be clear to all but the most naive," he said.
"If Iran does not agree to negotiate in some sincere fashion, this outing of the facility at Qom brings forward the date that severe sanctions will be imposed."
Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Tehran will "very soon" give the International Atomic Energy Agency a timetable for inspecting its second enrichment plant, in an interview posted with state-owned Press TV on Tuesday.
Diplomatic efforts in recent years have stumbled on Iran's build up of uranium enrichment - which could be used for both civilian and military purposes - in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
The IAEA's latest report on Iran complained that Tehran was not cooperating on questions related to a possible military dimension to its nuclear program.
Earlier this month, Iran presented a new package of proposals for Thursday's talks.
It referred to global nuclear disarmament - an issue addressed by the UN Security Council in a resolution since then - and a range of issues but not its own atomic program.
Iranian officials underscored that their nuclear "rights" - a euphemism for uranium enrichment which the UN Security Council wants suspended - were not negotiable.
Mohammad-Reza Djalili, an expert on Iranian affairs at Geneva's Graduate Institute, said Tehran's strategy was based on "not giving any ground on the nuclear issue and gaining time, which they have been doing for more or less seven years".
Fitzpatrick said Iran could offer to come into line with some IAEA requirements to woo Russia and China but that would not resolve demands
on enrichment limits.
"I think Iran will try to avoid sanctions by gauging how much cooperation they need to provide, so they'll show a little leg in terms of
cooperation," he added.
However, analysts also pointed to signs of a recent hardening in Russia's stance.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this week that Moscow would like to see "substantial progress" on the nuclear program in Geneva, days after President Dmitry Medvedev signalled he might endorse sanctions against Iran.
"It's a strong indication of a change in Russia's position and that probably has something to do with the US attempts to reset the relationship with Russia," said Fitzpatrick.
