EU: No deal reached at nuclear talks with Iran
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — Iran and six world powers yesterday failed to reach agreement on how to reduce fears that Tehran might use its nuclear technology to make weapons.
This has extended years of inconclusive talks and added to concerns the diplomatic window on reaching a deal with Tehran may soon close.
The US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany were asking Tehran to greatly limit its production and stockpiling of uranium enriched to 20 per cent, which is just a technical step away from weapons-grade uranium. That would keep Iran’s supply below the amount needed for further processing into a weapon.
Expectations the negotiations were making progress rose as an afternoon session continued into the evening. But comments by the two sides after they ended made it clear that they fell far short of making enough headway to qualify the meeting as a success.
“What matters in the end is substance, and … we are still a considerable distance apart,” Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s head of foreign policy, told reporters at the end of the two-day talks.
Ashton, the convener of the meeting, said negotiators would now consult with their capitals. She made no mention of plans for new talks — another sign that the gap dividing the two sides remains substantial. She said she would talk with chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili by telephone over further steps.
Jalili spoke of “some distance between the positions of the two sides”. He suggested Iran was ready to discuss meeting a key demand of the other side — cutting back its highest-grade uranium enrichment production and stockpile — but only if the six reciprocated with rewards far greater than they are now willing to give.
Western negotiators noted an improved atmosphere from previous sessions, with Ashton speaking of “a real back and forth between us when we were able to discuss details, to pose questions, and to get answers directly”.
She described the better negotiating climate as a “very important element”.
Still, the lack of forward movement in international negotiations that started a decade ago was certain to increase concerns that diplomacy was ineffective as a tool to stop Iran from moving toward nuclear-weapon making capacity.
Israel is most worried. The Jewish state says Iran is only a few months away from the threshold of having material to turn into a bomb and has vowed to use all means to prevent it from reaching that point. The US has not said what its “red line” is, but has said it will not tolerate an Iran armed with nuclear weapons.