* Iran, six powers meet next month for nuclear talks
* Mousavian: Iran wants end to nuclear standoff
* Says Iran achieved “break-out” ability in 2002
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, March 31 (Reuters) – An end to a nearly
decade-long nuclear standoff between Iran and major world powers
will be possible if the United States and its European allies
recognize Tehran’s right to enrich uranium, a former Iranian
negotiator said in an editorial.
“Talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the
U.N. Security Council plus Germany (P5+1), scheduled for next
month, provide the best opportunity to break the nine-year
deadlock over Iran’s nuclear program,” Hossein Mousavian, Iran’s
former chief nuclear negotiator, wrote in an editorial in the
Boston Globe.
Mousavian, now a visiting scholar at Princeton University in
New Jersey, had been seen as a moderate when in the Iranian
government. Although he is not currently a policymaker, such
public presentations of Iranian thinking is rare.
Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and rejects U.S.
and European allegations that it is secretly amassing the
capability to produce atomic weapons. Iran has rejected Security
Council demands that it halt enrichment and other sensitive
nuclear work, saying it has a sovereign right to atomic energy.
This has led to four rounds of increasingly stringent U.N.
Security Council sanctions, mostly focusing on its nuclear and
missile industries, but also targeting some financial
institutions, a few subsidiaries of its major shipping firm, and
companies linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In recent months there has been increased speculation about
possible Israeli air strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites – which
some analysts fear could spark a Middle East war.
For the talks, expected to take place in mid-April, to open
the door to a resolution of the standoff with Iran, Mousavian
said the United States and its European allies must make clear
that war and coercion are not the only options.
They should seek enhanced engagement with Tehran, as U.S.
President Barack Obama has repeatedly called for.
“This could work – since 2003, Iran has been looking for a
viable and durable solution to the diplomatic standoff,” wrote
Mousavian.
POLITICALLY MOTIVATED CHARGES
Mousavian was Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator from 2003 to
2005 before conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took over
from his reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami. According to
Western envoys familiar with Mousavian, he appeared at the time
to be genuinely interested in reaching a deal with the West.
After he was removed from the nuclear negotiating team,
Mousavian was arrested and briefly jailed in 2007 on accusations
of espionage. He was acquitted of that charge, which could have
carried the death penalty, but was found guilty of “propaganda
against the system.”
Analysts and diplomats said the charges against Mousavian
were really a reflection of an internal Iranian dispute over how
to handle Iran’s atomic dispute with the West. Some Iranians
favor the moderate line adopted by Mousavian while others have
backed Ahmadinejad’s more confrontational approach.
Mousavian writes that if a deal that is acceptable to both
parties is to be reached, the two sides’ “bottom lines” should
be identified.
“For Iran, this is the recognition of its legitimate right
to create a nuclear program – including enrichment – and a
backing off by the P5+1 from its zero-enrichment position.”
“For the P5+1, it is an absolute prohibition on Iran from
creating a nuclear bomb, and having Iran clear up ambiguities in
its nuclear program to the satisfaction of the International
Atomic Energy Agency,” Mousavian writes.
The West also needs to abandon calls for regime change and
accept that “crippling sanctions, covert actions, and military
strikes might slow down Iran’s nuclear program but will not stop
it.”
“In fact, it is too late to demand that Iran suspend
enrichment activities,” Mousavian writes. “It mastered
enrichment technology and reached break-out capability in 2002
and continues to steadily improve its uranium-enrichment
capabilities.”
The so-called “break-out” capability refers to the ability
of a country to construct a nuclear weapon.
A U.S. think tank, the Institute for Science and
International Security (ISIS), has said that capping Iranian
uranium enrichment at 5 percent purity level compared with the
90 percent needed for a bomb could form part of an interim deal
that would give time for more substantial negotiations.
This and other priority measures would “limit Iran’s
capability to break out quickly,” ISIS said in a report.
Among the things the West should offer to Iran is a package
that includes recognition of its nuclear rights, ending
sanctions, and “normalization of Iran’s nuclear file.” In
return, Iran should offer the IAEA full transparency and permit
the most intrusive inspections possible.
