Excerpts from previous status reports, by subject
Removed on January 31, 2006
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Europe's diplomacy with Iran unravels
Europe's diplomacy with
Iran unravels
Iranian and European negotiators met on December 21, 2005 and agreed
to resume talks on Iran's nuclear program in January. The talks have
been suspended since August. Though the decision to return to the negotiating
table is a positive sign, the likelihood that upcoming talks will yield
a compromise on the future of Iran’s contentious uranium enrichment
plan is slim. No substantive progress on this subject was made at the
meeting in December and comments by Iranian officials since then have
left little hope that a compromise is possible.
Then, on January 10, Iran removed international seals from uranium enrichment equipment at three sites and resumed “nuclear research” at its pilot centrifuge plant at Natanz The move ended the partial nuclear freeze that had been in place in Iran since October 2003, and left little hope of success for the European-led effort to shut down Iran’s uranium enrichment program through diplomacy. It also reversed commitments Iran had made in an agreement with Britain, France, Germany and the European Union in November 2004, and went against a number of IAEA resolutions, which have called on Iran to re-establish—rather than end—a full suspension of all uranium enrichment activities. The freeze was to have remained in place pending the completion of the IAEA’s investigation of Iran’s illicit nuclear work, which came to light in 2003.
International condemnation of Iran’s enrichment resumption
was swift. The United States, Britain, France and Germany, along with
the
European Union and the IAEA called on Iran to reverse course. Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Iran’s move was “a
cause for concern,” and promised that Russia would “make
an effort to ensure that during the period of negotiations the moratorium
is maintained.” An
emergency meeting of the IAEA governing board has been called for February
2, at which countries will once again debate Iran’s referral
to the U.N. Security Council—a move that now appears more likely
to garner majority, if not unanimous support among board members.