Agence France-Presse,
WASHINGTON: On the eve of talks between EU and Iranian officials on Iran's controversial nuclear program, the United States held firm Tuesday to demands that Iran freeze all its uranium enrichment activities.
A State Department official denied speculation that Washington and its major power partners dealing with the issue could agree to a compromise deal that would let Iran maintain some of its nuclear reprocessing work.
“There is no change in our policy — Iran needs to suspend its enrichment-related activities if it wants to enter into negotiations,” said Gonzalo Gallegos, a department spokesman.
The United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia have offered to negotiate a package of economic and diplomatic incentives for Tehran if it halts uranium enrichment work many fear is a cover for developing nuclear weapons.
Tehran insists it is only seeking to enrich uranium to a low level needed to provide fuel for nuclear power plants, an activity it is allowed to pursue as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Earlier this month Iran announced that it had expanded its processing program 10-fold by building some 3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges and it confirmed plans to build and install another 47,000 of the machines.
But US officials and non-proliferation experts doubt the Iranians have mastered the difficult technique of actually enriching uranium.
Some experts suggested the Iranians could seek a compromise solution to the crisis under which Iran would be able to continue building and testing centrifuges during negotiations with the six parties, as long as no uranium was actually enriched.
The State Department appeared on Tuesday to rule this out.
Iran has defied multiple UN Security Council resolutions demanding it freeze the enrichment work, drawing two sets of UN sanctions, the most recent adopted last month.
Gallegos stressed that planned talks Wednesday and Thursday in Turkey between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani did not amount to negotiations — something Washington says can only take place once Iran suspends enrichment.
“The Solana-Larijani discussion will, however, afford an opportunity for a useful, direct exchange with Iran,” he said.
“We urge Iran to seize this opportunity for a diplomatic solution to Iran's proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities and that Larijani will be prepared for serious discussions on the issue,” he said.
