EU, Iran close to deal for nuclear talks

WASHINGTON – Reuters- Iran is close to a deal that would include a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment and clear the way for nuclear talks but Teheran wants to keep the agreement secret, The Washington Times reported on Tuesday.

The deal could be completed either Tuesday or Wednesday when EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani are set to meet in Europe, the report said, citing Bush administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In Brussels, a spokeswoman for Solana said he had no plans to meet Larijani on Tuesday and would be staying in Brussels all day.

The spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, declined comment on the Washington Times report but said senior EU official Robert Cooper and Iranian official Javad Vaedi had held talks in Paris on Monday.

‘We are working on the meeting with Larijani, but I will not say when nor where until it really happens,’ she said. ‘We continue to engage with the Iranians in order to create the conditions for these negotiations.’

Foreign ministers of the major powers agreed last week in New York to give Solana a few more weeks to try to clinch a deal on launching formal negotiations, setting an unannounced deadline of early October, diplomats said.

The Washington Times said under the agreement Iran would halt uranium enrichment for 90 days so additional talks could be held with several European nations.

Solana and Larijani had been expected to meet before but two meetings scheduled this month were postponed.

Asked about Iran’s secrecy demand, State Department spokesman Tom Casey told the newspaper: ‘The terms laid out by the Security Council are clear. Iran needs to suspend its uranium enrichment activities and it needs to do so in a verifiable way.

‘If it does, we can start negotiations. If it doesn’t, we move to sanctions,’ Casey said.

The United States, France, Russia, China, Britain and Germany offered Iran a package of incentives in June aimed at persuading Teheran to abandon technology that could be used to make a nuclear weapon.

Iran says its nuclear program is for electricity generation and has, so far, ignored an Aug. 31 UN Security Council deadline to suspend enrichment.

Suspending uranium enrichment, a process of purifying uranium for use as fuel in nuclear power plants or atomic weapons, is a precondition for talks on the incentives offered by the Western powers.