West’s Inflexibility Endangering Continued Talks with Iran

Western diplomats said Iran and the world powers will attend a second round of talks in the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad next month if they make some progress in the first round in Istanbul, Turkey, tomorrow, but success might be hard to attain in the Saturday talks as the western powers refuse to show flexibility.

After years of failure, Iran and the six world powers may finally make some progress on nuclear negotiations when they meet again Saturday if each side shows willingness to offer concessions the other seeks.

Iran has proposed Baghdad as a possible venue for a second round and a European diplomat told AP on Friday that the six could agree to meet there in May if there were enough progress in Istanbul. He demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly reveal the confidential information.

But even if the two sides find enough common ground, they may have a tougher time in any potential second round. That’s when the six powers will likely seek further commitments from Tehran to give up its uranium enrichment, a right enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) statute for all member states.

Diplomats from some of the six powers, who agreed to discuss meeting strategy with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity, said it was unlikely Western powers would use the talks to offer the possibility of putting the oil penalties on hold if Tehran shows readiness to compromise on 20-percent enrichment and other demands put forward Saturday by the six – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

And this lack of flexibility seems to be discouraging Tehran even before the start of talks with the world powers.

A source privy to the negotiations between Iran and the six world powers in Istanbul, Turkey, said that “discouraging stances” have been adopted by the US and EU delegations before the start of the talks.

“The lack of flexibility in the stances adopted by the US and the European Union (EU) officials is discouraging,” an informed source close to the Iranian team of negotiators said Friday afternoon.

The source said the Iranian negotiators, who arrived in Istanbul on Friday morning, are waiting for an official statement by the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) on today’s discussions.

Despite the West’s lack of flexibility, Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili has vowed to present new initiatives in a bid to help the talks embrace success.

Michael Mann, Spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, confirmed Iran’s seriousness in the talks with the world powers, saying, “There have been signals that suggest to us they are more serious than the last time.”

In Tehran, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, head of the Iranian Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee, said the talks in Istanbul will be “hard and heavy”. In a telephone interview with the AP, he reiterated Iran will not step back from its nuclear activities.

Past talks failed because Tehran refused to give up its NPT and IAEA right of access and use of the civilian nuclear technology.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Undersecretary and deputy chief negotiator Ali Baqeri told Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who heads Moscow’s team of negotiators in the Istanbul talks between Iran and the six world powers, that Iran has been making serious efforts for the success of the Saturday meeting with the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany).

“But success of the talks is guaranteed by the opposite parties’ mutual seriousness and constructive measures,” he reminded.

Ryabkov, who came to Istanbul after a meeting of Group 8 in Washington, endorsed Baqeri’s remarks, and said that all parties to the Saturday talks in Istanbul should try for the success of the meeting.

Prior to the meeting with Baqeri, Ryabkov told reporters that there is no shred of evidence to indicate that Iran is running a military nuclear activity.

“I have never witnessed any proof or document indicating that Iran’s nuclear activity is military,” he said, and added, “I believe that we should be seeking agreements, instead of magnifying differences, in order to resolve the issue.”

Asked to comment on Iran’s right to enrich uranium, the Russian diplomat said, “According to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) the Islamic Republic of Iran is entitled to the right to make use of the nuclear energy, but this right is accompanied by some responsibilities.”

Also, Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, in a phone conversation with his Swedish counterpart, called on the six world powers party to the negotiations with Iran to adopt a positive stance to prepare the grounds for successful and progressive talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday.

During the phone talk with his Swedish counterpart on Friday, Salehi expressed the hope that the opposite party to the upcoming talks in Istanbul, Turkey, would reciprocate “Tehran’s good will and constructive initiatives with preparing the ground for successful and progressive negotiations through positive stances”.

The diplomats said the six powers planned to meet informally late Friday to work on a joint negotiating position, and Ashton, the facilitator for the six countries, was to talk separately over dinner with Iran’s top negotiator Seed Jalili.

Iran’s Baqeri met the heads of the Russian and Chinese delegations in the Iranian consulate in Istanbul on Friday afternoon.

A diplomat familiar with the talks said Iran conveyed through the Russians and the Chinese that it was interested in setting up a “roadmap” for future talks. He demanded anonymity because that information was privileged.

The US and the other five world powers are due to start a new round of negotiations with Iran in Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday, while they are divided on how to deal with Tehran’s nuclear program.

China and Russia want quick easing of sanctions in exchange for Iranian concessions; the US and the Europeans want a slower timetable with solid evidence of changes in Iranian behavior.