Iran State Radio's Downbeat Assessment of Iran-EU Nuclear Talks

Jun 01, 05:10 AM

Current Headlines: Text of report by Iranian radio on 1 June

The seventh round of talks held in Madrid between Dr Larijani, the Head of the Supreme National Security Council of our country and Javier Solana, the head of the Foreign Policy of the European Union, did not achieve any impressive results. The two sides did, nonetheless, say that on the issue of convening official talks to try to find a common ground the talks were successful and that in two weeks time, they will meet again in a location, as yet, undisclosed.

According to analysts the increasing momentum of Solana's efforts to reach a bilateral accord with Iran is indicative of pressures being exerted on Europe from two different directions. The first is that the peaceful nuclear activity of Iran is progressing speedily and this progress has strengthened the diplomatic hands of our country and weakened the position of Western countries. It has also split this camp in two, such that the serious differences of opinion between Europe and America on the one hand and Al-Baradi'i - the head of the International Atomic Energy Authority and America from the other.

America's protest to Al-Baradi'i is indicative of the differences of opinion over the realistic approaches that need to be adopted in relation to the progress of Iran on nuclear technology and the emergence of some news to the effect that Europe is willing to cooperate with Iran in this field.

Secondly. America has put the European Union under pressure to persuade Iran to suspend enrichment. This is because Washington is fully aware of the ineffectiveness of the United Nations Security Council sanctions and the improbability of military action against Iran. It [USA] is, therefore, attempting to use the levers of pressure to exit the impasse of the illegal Security Council demand to suspension of enrichment by Iran in a face saving way.

The incompatibility of this development with the rights of nations under the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] agreement is the main reason why the meeting yesterday between Solana and Larijani and six rounds of talks between the two previous to yesterday's [31 May 2007] meeting has not progressed.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.