An expected showdown in Iran-EU nuclear talks yesterday in London should be more sound than fury as both sides feel the negotiations are basically on hold until after Iranian presidential elections in June, diplomats said.
"It is still not the end game. Look to June," a European diplomat close to the talks said.
Another diplomat said the talks, set to take place yesterday evening, would be at the level of political directors of foreign ministries but held secretly and away from the press.
In Tehran on Thursday a key Iranian negotiator said the Islamic Republic was "very pessimistic" since the EU has been dragging its feet.
Hossein Mussavian said: "Up until now and from the start of the process [in December], especially since the Paris meeting [March 23], the Europeans have not undertaken any serious step to bring it to a close."
In The Hague, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said that if the talks collapsed, "it is our right to restore the program" of uranium enrichment which has been halted to get the talks going, with Tehran promised trade, security and technology rewards if it makes the suspension permanent.
Iran is waiting for an answer from EU negotiators Britain, Germany and France to a proposal that would allow Iran to enrich uranium, a process that makes fuel for nuclear reactors but in highly refined form can be the explosive core of atom bombs.
The European trio is holding fast, however, to its position that Iran must give up on all nuclear fuel activity in order to provide "objective guarantees" that it will not make atomic weapons, diplomats said.
The US, which backs the EU diplomatic initiative but is not party to the talks, charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and must be kept from obtaining the weapons breakout capability which enrichment represents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Jerusalem on Thursday that "Iran should abandon the creation of full nuclear cycle technologies and allow full international control of its nuclear facilities."
"Depending on how Iran acts on all these questions, we will act accordingly," said Putin, whose country is building Iran's first nuclear power reactor for civilian production of electricity.
Diplomats said the Iranians will not be able to make a deal with Europe on the nuclear issue until they have chosen a president.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
RSS