VIENNA, (Reuters) – High-stakes talks between Iran and big powers that stalled yesterday will resume today and the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said a deal was still in reach to help allay concerns about Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The multilateral talks, which began on Monday, faltered after Iran said it would not agree to curb uranium enrichment, something seen by the powers as essential to make any accord work, and warned France could not be part of a deal.
“I believe we are making progress. It is maybe slower than I expected. But we are moving forward and we are going to meet tomorrow at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT),” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters.
ElBaradei said the day was spent in separate bilateral consultations involving Iran, France, Russia and the United States and he believed a deal was still attainable.
“We still hope to be able to reach an agreement. It’s a complex process… There (are) many technical issues we have to analyse. There is of course a question of confidence-building guarantees,” he said, apparently referring to Iran.
The negotiations, presided over by ElBaradei, offered the first chance to build on a tentative agreement reached on Oct. 1 to defuse a long standoff over fears Iran’s stockpiling of enriched uranium is a latent quest to develop atomic bombs.
At those talks in Geneva, Western diplomats said, Iran agreed in principle to send most of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for further refinement. This would be converted into fuel rods to replenish dwindling fuel stocks of a Tehran reactor that makes radio-isotopes for cancer care.
“The (consultations) have been constructive and the meeting with all countries concerned will continue tomorrow,” Iran’s IAEA ambassador, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told reporters.
