Atomic Talks Collapse in Disappointment Over Iran Conditions, Ashton Says

Bloomberg
By Jonathan Tirone and Benjamin Harvey - Jan 22, 2011


Discussions between world powers and Iran broke down today without any fresh commitment to hold future negotiations, said European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton.




“We had hoped to have detailed, constructive discussions,” Ashton told journalists in Istanbul. EU diplomats were “disappointed” that Iran brought fresh preconditions to the Turkish city and demanded that United Nations sanctions be lifted before substantive talks about its nuclear work could begin, she said.



The failure to achieve a breakthrough may raise tensions between Iran and the West. The U.S., which accuses Iran of harboring a secret nuclear-weapons program, has refused to eliminate military action as an alternative to stop the Persian Gulf country’s atomic work. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday in London that the world must prepare to address the Iranian nuclear challenge.



Blair warned of the “looming and coming challenge” of Iran, which he told a panel is destabilizing the Middle East and holding back modernization by supporting terrorism.



“At some point, the West has got to get out of this wretched posture of apology for believing that we are causing what the Iranians are doing or what these extremists are doing; we are not,” he said.



Iranian Demands



The second day of talks in Istanbul ended around 12:30 p.m. local time. The so-called P5+1 group, composed of China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K and the U.S., met with Iranian diplomats yesterday for more than six hours in the Ciragan Palace, according to Western officials who briefed reporters.



Iran stepped up its demands at the meeting, three Western diplomats said on the condition of anonymity because details of the discussions weren’t public. Along with insisting that UN sanctions must be lifted before detailed talks about its nuclear work can begin, Iran reiterated a demand that its right to fabricate uranium fuel be recognized and protected.



The U.S. wants the P5+1 to press Iran to resolve concerns about its nuclear work, while the Iranian government has sought to broaden the meeting to include regional security issues, according to analysts and diplomats connected with the talks. The U.S. and Europe accuse Iran of lying about its nuclear research, which they say is a cover to develop atomic weapons. Iran says it only wants to generate nuclear power.



The “positive atmosphere between the two sides” may result in “acceptable outcomes,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported today from Istanbul.



Missed Opportunity



EU countries attending the discussions were disappointed that Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, didn’t grasp the opportunity to talk with U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns, the Western diplomats said. Jalili met for 90 minutes with Ashton. The P5+1 group has been unified in rejecting Iran’s insistence on rolling back sanctions as a precondition to talks, the officials said.



“Although there will certainly be no breakthrough in this week’s Istanbul talks, it would be a mistake simply to write them off as another failure,” Stephen Kinzer, author of the book “Reset: Iran, Turkey and America’s Future,” said in an e- mail. “Iran and the U.S. have been deeply hostile for 30 years, and their hostility will not evaporate overnight.”



U.S. officials tried today to pare expectations and strike a conciliatory tone before the meeting began. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said in a statement that the U.S. seeks to “launch a meaningful and practical process.”



Test



“These negotiations are a test of Iran’s willingness to enter into and to keep its international obligations,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday at a press conference in Wellington, New Zealand. “It is time for them to show in these negotiations that they are prepared to discuss the whole of their nuclear program.”



Technical glitches and sanctions that have delayed Iran’s nuclear program give the Obama administration and its partners more time to exert pressure without resorting to military action, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. Israel’s outgoing head of intelligence, Meir Dagan, said on Jan. 7 that Iran wouldn’t be able to produce a nuclear weapon before 2015, three or four years later than previous Israeli estimates.