U.S. Opens Window for Iran Talks

Daily News Article   —   Posted on September 23, 2010

(by Jay Solomon in New York and Richard Boudreaux in Moscow) – The Obama administration said Iran has offered new signs of a willingness to negotiate on its nuclear program, as Washington and other world powers pressed at the United Nations for an immediate resumption of a dialogue with Tehran.

The comments, made by senior U.S. officials on Wednesday, came a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told American journalists in New York that he saw no “alternative” but to resume negotiations with the international community on the nuclear issue.

Still, U.S. and European officials said they remain skeptical of Tehran’s desire to negotiate an agreement to end or limit the Iranian nuclear program. They noted that in recent months Iran has expanded its production of nuclear fuel while increasingly limiting access to inspectors from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

U.S. and European officials say they believe pervasive new U.N., U.S. and European Union sanctions enacted against Iran since June have hit Mr. Ahmadinejad’s government considerably harder than Tehran anticipated-possibly explaining the Iranian leader’s stated willingness for talks.

The U.S., by reaching out to Tehran and saying it sees signals Iran may be willing to talk, is supporting a recent White House campaign to convince the international community that it still has time to contain Iran’s nuclear program and that its efforts so far have been effective.

Allies such as Israel, however, say Tehran could be only months from achieving a nuclear weapons capability, while critics of the administration say diplomatic overtures simply buy time for Iran.

In Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dealt Iran another blow, issuing a decree that prohibits delivery of S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran-halting a politically sensitive, long-delayed weapons deal with a longtime trading partner.

The move brings trade rules for Russia and its companies into line with the latest round of U.N. sanctions against Iran in June, which Moscow supported.

The announcement coincided with a new offer to Iran by Russia, the U.S., the three other U.N. Security Council members and Germany, the so-called P5+1, to enter negotiations over its nuclear program.

“With some signs that Iran may be willing to meet this autumn, [the U.S. and international community are] focused heavily on preparations for such talks,” said a senior U.S. official on Wednesday.

The official cited Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments, as well as messages passed by Iranian diplomats in recent months to representatives of the P5+1, the international diplomatic bloc trying to negotiate with Iran on the nuclear issue.

But there is a growing assessment in Washington and many European capitals that even if Mr. Ahmadinejad is committed to talks, he would be unlikely to deliver results in an Iranian political system where his power is increasingly being challenged.

“It’s hard to say at this point” if Mr. Ahmadinejad is serious, said the senior U.S. official. “We’ve all seen a lot of different kinds of statements out of the Iranian leadership.”

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U.S. and European officials said [the EU’s foreign-policy chief Catherine] Ashton and her staff have repeatedly sought in recent weeks to reach out to Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, to follow up on the positive signals coming from Tehran. But their overtures have been rebuffed, fueling a belief that there are splits in Iran’s leadership over the issue of negotiations.

In the past month, Mr. Ahmadinejad has faced growing criticism from conservative allies [in Iran], many of whom now accuse him of overriding the [Iranian] parliament, ignoring the wishes of the country’s supreme leader and marginalizing the foreign ministry.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, however, maintains political support from his traditional power base among the poor and members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps.

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Moscow is among Iran’s chief weapons suppliers, and the S-300s were viewed as critical in shielding Iran from air attacks. Mr. Medvedev’s action also barred Russia from supplying tanks, fighter jets, helicopters, ships and missile systems to Iran.

The U.S. and Israel had lobbied Russia to scrap plans to fulfill its 2007 deal to supply the S-300s, which Iran could use to protect its nuclear facilities from attack. Western governments suspect that some of those facilities are involved in developing a capacity to make nuclear weapons, a charge Iran rejects.

The Obama administration is also stepping up steps to isolate Iran from its neighbors. On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet for the first time with her Syrian counterpart, Walid Moallem, according to U.S. and Syrian officials.

Damascus is Tehran’s most important military ally. U.S. officials say they are trying to drive a wedge between Iran and Syria. Washington is also seeking to engage Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a revitalized Middle East peace process.

-Farnaz Fassihi contributed to this article.

Write to Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com and Richard Boudreaux at richard.boudreaux@wsj.com.

Copyright 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.  Reprinted here for educational purposes only.  Visit the website at wsj.com. 

Background

IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM:

• Iran's 20 year secret nuclear program was discovered in 2002. Iran says its program is for fuel purposes only, but it has been working on uranium enrichment which is used to make nuclear bombs.
• Under the United Nations' NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty) countries are not allowed to make nuclear weapons (except for the 5 that had nuclear weapons prior to the treaty - the U.S., Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom).
• Safeguards are used to verify compliance with the Treaty through inspections conducted by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).
• The IAEA issued a report on Sept. 15, 2008 that said Iran has repeatedly blocked an investigation into its nuclear program and the probe is now deadlocked.
• The U.N. Security Council has already imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear defiance. Despite the sanctions, Iran has refused to end its nuclear program.
• A group of U.S. and Russian scientists said in a report issued in May 2009 that Iran could produce a simple nuclear device in one to three years and a nuclear warhead in another five years after that. The study, published by the nonpartisan EastWest Institute, also said Iran is making advances in rocket technology and could develop a ballistic missile capable of firing a 2,200-pound nuclear warhead up to 1,200 miles "in perhaps six to eight years."
• The Iranian government has called for the destruction of Israel on numerous occasions. It is believed that once obtained, Iranian President Ahmadinejad would use nuclear weapons against Israel.