NEWS,06.03.2012.

United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany accept Iran offer of nuclear talks

Six world powers have accepted an Iranian offer for talks on its disputed nuclear programme, the European Union's top diplomat said. The announcement on Tuesday by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton came after a year's standstill that has increased fears of a slide into a new Middle East war. The statement also came shortly after Russia called for a resumption of face-to-face dialogue as soon as possible, saying an Iranian letter last month showed it was now ready for serious negotiations. With Israel speaking increasingly loudly of resorting to military action, the talks could provide some respite in a crisis which has driven up oil prices and threatened to suck the United States into its third major war in a decade. Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, wrote to Ashton in February saying Tehran wanted to reopen negotiations and offering to bring unspecified "new initiatives" to the table.” Today I have replied to Dr. Jalili's letter of February 14," Ashton, speaking on behalf of the six powers after weeks of consultations with them, said in a statement. "I have offered to resume talks with Iran on the nuclear issue."Ashton, who represents the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany in dealings with Iran, said the date and venue for the talks would now have to be agreed.” Our overall goal remains a comprehensive negotiated, long-term solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme, while respecting Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy," Ashton said in her reply to Jalili.Western states are likely to tread cautiously, mindful of past accusations that Iran's willingness to talk has been a stalling tactic to blunt pressure and not a route to agreement. The Islamic Republic's latest approach to the six powers comes at a time when it is suffering unprecedented economic pain from expanding oil and financial sanctions.Talks held sporadically over the past few years have fallen apart over Iran's refusal to address suspicions that is covertly trying to develop atom bombs. After the last round collapsed in January 2011, Western officials signalled there would be no more unless Iran was ready to tackle ways to ease their concerns. The resumption of talks nonetheless could slow a drift towards military strikes to knock out Iran's uranium enrichment programme, which the West fears is geared to producing atomic bomb fuel and Tehran says is for electricity only. Israel, which says its existence could be threatened if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons, is losing confidence in Western efforts to rein in the Islamic Republic with sanctions and diplomatic pressure. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured US President Barack Obama on Monday that the Jewish state has made no decision on attacking Iranian nuclear sites, sources close to talks in Washington said. He, however, gave no sign of backing away from the option of military strikes.But the new prospect of diplomacy contributed to a fall in oil prices on Tuesday, with Brent crude down $1.70 to $122.10."The risk premium on Iran was pretty high, so one should expect to see that fading because world powers are willing to talk to Iran. It's much harder to launch a military strike on a country if you are talking to them," said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland. Russia, which built Iran's first nuclear power plant and has far warmer relations with Tehran than Western nations do, has often stressed the need for talks and said coercive pressure on Tehran is counterproductieve.Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said last month that global powers must work harder to seek agreement with Iran, warning that Tehran's appetite for concessions was waning as it moves closer to being able to build atomic weapons.Ryabkov said he hoped fresh talks with Iran would address a proposal by president-elect Vladimir Putin for global powers to formally recognise Iran's right to enrich uranium, Tehran to submit its programme to full IAEA supervision, and international sanctions to be lifted.Iran said on Tuesday it would let UN nuclear inspectors visit a military site where they have been repeatedly refused access to check intelligence suggesting explosives tests relevant to atom bombs has been conducted there. Diplomats, however, cited a proviso in the Iranian statement saying that access to the Parchin site still hinged on a broader agreement on how to settle outstanding issues which the two sides have been unable to reach for five years.An International Atomic Energy Agency report in November said that Iran had built a large containment chamber at Parchin, southeast of Tehran, to conduct high-explosives experiments that are "strong indicators" of an effort to design atomic bombs.The IAEA requested access to Parchin during talks in Tehran in January and again in February, but the Iranian side refused.” Considering the fact that Parchin is a military site, granting access is a time-consuming process and cannot be permitted repeatedly," Iran's delegation to the Vienna-based IAEA said in the statement. It added that the "process could be ... started when the agreement on modalities is reached" - suggesting Tehran had not relaxed its insistence that there must first be an omnibus agreement on how to settle questions about the nature of Iran's nuclear work before an inspection trip to Parchin could happen. Iranian diplomats and IAEA officials were not immediately available for comment. Years of tortuous negotiations have often come unstuck over procedural obstacles imposed by Iran since the IAEA first began seeking unfettered access in the country almost a decade ago to check indications of illicit military nuclear activity. Diplomats say a broad deal on settling outstanding issues has been thwarted by Iran's refusal to let inspectors examine sites, peruse documents and question nuclear scientists cited in classified Western intelligence reports. Israel has mooted pre-emptive bombings against Iran, a hawkish approach that Obama - wary of the risk of igniting a new Middle East war and a global surge in oil prices as he seeks re-election in November - has tried to restrain to give time for harsher sanctions and diplomatic pressure to bear fruit.Obama and Netanyahu agreed on Monday to maintain coordination on Iran but continued to disagree on when the clock for non-military options should run out.Israel insists that military action against Iran would be warranted to prevent it from attaining the capability of making nuclear weapons, as opposed to when it actually builds a device. Washington has not embraced that idea."The pressure (on Iran) is growing but time is growing short," Netanyahu was quoted by aides as telling Obama.Later, addressing the influential pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, Netanyahu said: "None of us can afford to wait much longer. As prime minister of Israel, I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation.” At the podium, he held up a copy of a 1944 letter from the US War Department to world Jewish leaders turning down their request to bomb the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.Obama sought to reassure Netanyahu that Washington was keeping its own military option open as a last resort and "has Israel's back". He added: "We do believe there is still a window that allows for a diplomatic resolution to this issue."On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told AIPAC: "Military action is the last alternative when all else fails. "But make no mistake, we will act if we have to.” Israel, believed to be the only nuclear weapons power in the Middle East, fears Iranian nuclear facilities may soon be buried so deep that they would be invulnerable to its bunker-busting bombs, which are less powerful than those in the US arsenal. US officials say that while Iran may be manoeuvring to keep its options open, there is no clear intelligence that it has made a final decision to "break out" with a nuclear warhead.

NEWS,30.01.2012.

Iran will stop oil sales to 'some countries'

Iran has sent conflicting signals in a dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions, vowing to stop oil exports soon to "some" countries but postponing a parliamentary debate on a proposed halt to such sales to the European Union. The Islamic Republic declared itself optimistic about a visit by UN nuclear experts that began today but also warned the inspectors to be "professional" or see Tehran reducing cooperation with the world body on atomic matters. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection delegation will seek to advance efforts to resolve a row about nuclear work which Iran says is for making electricity but the West suspects is aimed at seeking a nuclear weapon. Tensions with the West rose this month when Washington and the European Union (EU) imposed the toughest sanctions yet in a drive to force Tehran to provide more information on its nuclear programme. The measures take direct aim at the ability of OPEC's second biggest oil exporter to sell its crude. In a remark suggesting Iran would fight sanctions with sanctions, Iran's oil minister said the Islamic state would soon stop exporting crude to "some" countries. Rostam Qasemi did not identify the countries but was speaking less than a week after the EU's 27 member states agreed to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1."Soon we will cut exporting oil to some countries," the state news agency IRNA quoted Qasemi as saying. Iranian lawmakers had been due to debate a bill today that could have cut off oil supplies to the EU in days, in a move calculated to hit ailing European economies before the EU-wide ban on took effect. But Iranian MPs postponed discussing the measure."No such draft bill has yet been drawn up and nothing has been submitted to the parliament. What exists is a notion by the deputies which is being seriously pursued to bring it to a conclusive end," Emad Hosseini, spokesman for parliament's Energy Committee, told Mehr. Iranian officials say sanctions have had no impact on the country.” Iranian oil has its own market, even if we cut our exports to Europe," oil minister Qasemi said. Another lawmaker, Mohammad Karim Abedi, said the bill would oblige the government to cut Iran's oil supplies to the European Union for five to 15 years, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. By turning the sanctions back on the EU, lawmakers hope to deny the bloc a six-month window it had planned to give those of its members most dependent on Iranian oil - including some of the most economically fragile in southern Europe - to adapt. The Mehr news agency quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying during a trip to Ethiopia: "We are very optimistic about the outcome of the IAEA delegation's visit to Iran ... Their questions will be answered during this visit.” We have nothing to hide and Iran has no clandestine (nuclear) activities.” Striking a sterner tone, Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned the IAEA team to carry out a "logical, professional and technical" job or suffer the consequences.” This visit is a test for the IAEA. The route for further cooperation will be open if the team carries out its duties professionally," said Larijani, state media reported.” Otherwise, if the IAEA turns into a tool (for major powers to pressure Iran), then Iran will have no choice but to consider a new framework in its ties with the agency."Iran's parliament in the past has approved bills to oblige the government to review its level of cooperation with the IAEA. However, Iran's top officials have always underlined the importance of preserving ties with the watchdog body. Before departing from Vienna, IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts said he hoped the Islamic state would tackle the watchdog's concerns "regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme”. The head of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said late on Saturday that the export embargo would hit European refiners, such as Italy's Eni, that are owed oil from Iran as part of long-standing buy-back contracts under which they take payment for past oilfield projects in crude.

"The European companies will have to abide by the provisions of the buyback contracts," Ahmad Qalebani told the ISNA news agency. "If they act otherwise, they will be the parties to incur the relevant losses and will subject the repatriation of their capital to problems.” Italy’s Eni is owed $1.7-1.8 billion in oil for contracts it executed in Iran in 2000 and 2001 and has been assured by EU policymakers its buyback contracts will not be part of the European embargo, but the prospect of Iran acting first may put that into doubt.Eni declined to comment today. The EU accounted for 25% of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011. However, analysts say the global oil market will not be overly disrupted if parliament votes for the bill that would turn off the oil tap for Europe. Potentially more disruptive to the world oil market and global security is the risk of Iran's standoff with the West escalating into military conflict.Iran has repeatedly said it could close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if sanctions succeed in preventing it from exporting crude, a move Washington said it would not tolerate. The IAEA's visit may be an opportunity to defuse some of the tension. Director General Yukiya Amano has called on Iran to show a "constructive spirit" and Tehran has said it is willing to discuss "any issues" of interest to the UN agency, including the military-linked concerns. But Western diplomats, who have often accused Iran of using such offers of dialogue as a stalling tactic while it presses ahead with its nuclear programme, say they doubt Tehran will show the kind of concrete cooperation the IAEA wants. They say Iran may offer limited concessions and transparency to try to ease intensifying international pressure, but that this is unlikely to amount to the full cooperation required. The outcome could determine whether Iran will face further isolation or whether there are prospects for resuming wider talks between Tehran and the major powers on the nuclear row. Salehi said Iran "soon" would write a letter to the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to discuss "a date and venue" for fresh nuclear talks.” Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in this letter, which may be sent in the coming days, also may mention other issues as well," Salehi said, without elaborating. The last round of talks in January 2011 between Jalili and Ashton, who represents major powers, failed over Iran's refusal to halt its sensitive nuclear work."The talks will be successful as the other party seems interested in finding a way out of this deadlock," Salehi said.