Moscow – Iran and Russia ended two days of talks in Moscow with no progress reported on ending the international standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, although Tehran’s chief negotiator Tuesday called the talks “positive and constructive.”
The Russian foreign minister also expressed optimism by declining to label the talks a failure.
Iran insists on its right to develop a nuclear-energy program that Western countries suspect is a cover for producing atomic weapons.
Moscow has proposed moving Iran’s uranium enrichment to Russian soil to end the deadlock and ensure that uranium is not diverted for weapons. Enrichment is a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a warhead.
The Russian offer, which is backed by the United States and the European Union, is widely seen as the last chance for Iran to address the West’s concerns before a March 6 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency that could start a process leading to a review by the U.N Security Council. The council has the power to impose economic and political sanctions.
A visiting U.S. diplomat said that although “no new ground was broken” during the talks, the international coalition pressuring Iran was working well.
“I think we’ve got a truly multilateral approach in place,” U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters in Moscow. “I think the momentum is with this coalition.”
Iran has rejected demands that it restore a freeze on uranium enrichment and made clear it does not intend to renounce its right to produce nuclear fuel domestically.
