LONDON—Six world powers meet on Friday to discuss imposing a third round of sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to stop enriching uranium, which they suspect could be used to build nuclear weapons.
Talks among top officials from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council—the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France—plus Germany were due to start in the morning and last several hours, diplomatic sources said.
Iran has refused to comply after two previous U.N. sanctions resolutions and denies that it wants to produce atomic bombs, saying its programme is intended solely for power generation.
The United States, represented by undersecretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns, says it wants to make progress in outlining a sanctions resolution and ministers can then decide on its timing.
But diplomats from other countries have said they want to hear first on how Iran's talks with the U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), are progressing after Tehran agreed to answer questions about its past secret nuclear work.
MOSCOW—Russia's nuclear chief on Friday said only full nuclear powers should create centres for enriching uranium, in a swipe at a Saudi proposal for Arab states to help supply Iran with enriched uranium.
U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states are ready to set up a body to provide enriched uranium to Iran in a bid to defuse Tehran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear plan, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister told a magazine this week.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries—Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates—have proposed creating a Middle East consortium for users of enriched uranium, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED).
When asked about the report, Russia's nuclear energy agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko said Russia had received no official information about the proposal, RIA news agency reported.
"In our opinion there should be many such centres but it is obvious that such centres must be in countries which have the full technology for enrichment (of uranium) so that this technology doesn't spread around the world," Kiriyenko said.
Prince Saud said Iran was considering the offer. He said the enrichment plant should be in a neutral country, such as Switzerland.
In late 2005 Russia offered to create a joint centre with Iran to enrich uranium on Russian territory, but Iran sent conflicting signals about its intentions. Later, Tehran said it would produce nuclear fuel inside Iran.
The Kremlin says that Iran should not be pushed into a corner and opposes tougher sanctions but senior officials say Russia has no interest in seeing Iran get nuclear weapons.
Russia, which says there is no evidence that Tehran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb, fears that a U.S. invasion of Iran could provoke a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Burns said Russia and China, major trading partners with Iran, had effectively blocked moves towards a third sanctions resolution for six months.
The United States imposed economic sanctions last week and has not ruled out military action against Iran. Britain has also said it will push for a third round of U.N. sanctions.
Russia, China Oppose Sanctions
But Russia believes dialogue rather than more punishment is the way forward while China reacted to the U.S. sanctions by saying it was opposed to acting "too rashly".
Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday that Tehran was cooperating with the IAEA, referring to an agreement in August under which Tehran pledged to clear up suspicions about past secret atomic activities.
Rafsanjani, who is an influential cleric and speaker of the powerful Assembly of Experts, said: "America is making a mistake. Iran has entered into negotiations and is talking to the Agency (IAEA). Iran has told (the IAEA) to ask its questions and get the answers. One should be patient and negotiate."
Referring to any possible U.S. military action, he said: "I am sure that if America seeks adventure again, soon all the nations of the world will realise that America has made an obvious mistake."
He said "such threats, if they come true, will create another quagmire for the global arrogance of (the United States)".
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking to reporters on Friday on her way to Turkey, said Washington had had some "tactical" differences with China and Russia about the timing and the "depth or breadth" of a new U.N. resolution.
"But the Russians—when I talked to (Foreign Minister) Sergei Lavrov yesterday—he said they were prepared to come and work on the text as we agreed when we were together last and we will just have to see how those discussions go," she said.
The major powers agreed in late September to delay a vote on new sanctions until late November at the earliest after it had received reports by the IAEA and a European Union negotiator.
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