  Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
BY FAREED MAHDY*
IDN-InDepthNews Service
ISTANBUL (IDN) - Turkish diplomacy had to dive into the Western-Iranian troubled waters, in view of Western powers’ dissatisfaction with a new Tehran proposal on ways how to implement its latest draft agreement with them.
In fact, Turkish Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu flew to Tehran to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadynejad on Nov. 21 in a new effort to mediate between Iran and the 5+1 group (UN Security Council permanent members plus Germany).
The new dispute was raised after representatives of the 5+1 expressed, on Nov. 20 in Brussels, their frustration with what they consider a lack of response by Tehran to the draft agreement they all reached in Geneva on Oct. 1 and elaborated later on in Vienna.
The draft agreement foresees that Iran sends 75 per cent of its low enriched uranium to a third party (Russia and/or France) to further enrich it and return the higher enriched material to Iran for its use in a medical research plant.
Iran has been reluctant to putting its nuclear programme under Western control, and has repeatedly emphasised that it aims at peaceful purposes only and not to producing nuclear weapons as alleged by Western powers.
THE 'TURKISH SOLUTION'
It was then that Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made a round of intensive diplomatic contacts with concerned Western capitals and Moscow, before announcing on Nov. 8 his proposal that Iran sends its low-enriched uranium to Russia and/or France, but through a third country -- that's Turkey.
According to this plan, Iran would send 75 per cent of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey, where Russia and/or France would take it home to enrich it further and send it back to Iran, probably also via Turkey, to use it for its medical research plant.
Ankara announced its readiness to accept the deal and the U.S. reacted to it positively. “We support the proposal as the IAEA has presented it,” State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly told reporters. "We are still waiting for a formal reply to it.”
Russian Foreign Ministry announced Moscow’s support for ElBaradei's proposal and France expressed acceptance.
'BRING YOUR URANIUM AND TAKE OUR, HERE'
Iran gave its awaited reply on Nov. 19, when its Foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki declared that his country excludes sending its low enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment, and proposes instead that the exchange takes place in Iran, simultaneously, in quantities to be agreed upon.
Mottaki explained the reasons behind the Iranian proposal. “We carried out a technical and economic study. We will certainly not send abroad our 3.5 per cent enriched uranium, but we can discuss exchanging it with (higher enriched) fuel, simultaneously, in Iran,” said the Foreign Minister.
“We invite the Vienna technical committee to meet and discuss our proposal," he added, while recalling that Iran “never accepted” the Vienna draft agreement as it was presented.
Iranian officials explained that this way everybody can avoid such “risky and expensive triangulation” of transporting its low-enriched uranium abroad and bringing the highly enriched material back to Iran through a third country.
In other words, Tehran has not refused the agreed deal that another country (Russia and/or France) takes its low-enriched uranium to further enrich it. What it proposes is that such an exchange be simultaneous and takes place on Iranian soil.
UNHAPPY WEST
Western countries seem, however, not to be happy with the Iranian proposal, towards which their representatives expressed frustration in Brussels.
Therefore, Turkey offered to mediate. In fact, at a joint press conference with Mottaki, Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu expressed Ankara's readiness to contribute to solving the Iranian nuclear file dispute “in a way that guarantees everybody's rights and on the bases of mutual respect”.
On his turn, ElBaradei appeared to keep the doors open, saying in Berlin on Nov. 20 that Iran should seize the opportunity, while warning that talks about more sanctions against Tehran would lead to intransigence.
WHY IRAN ONLY?
Meanwhile, a Turkish diplomat specialised in Middle East affairs said to IDN that his country considers that the Iranian proposal may represent a halfway diplomatic solution that could be put on the negotiation table, and not be taken as refusal.
The diplomat, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that Turkish officials understand Tehran's concerns that Western firmness and pressures to avoid nuclear escalation is directed at Iran only.
Instead, “North Korea, which appears to aim at producing nuclear weapons, continues with its programme with much lesser noise around it”, the source explained.
“Let alone the only nuclear power in the region -- Israel, which has around 250 nuclear heads for military use, about which nobody says one single word.” (IDN-InDepthNews/21.11.2009)
*Fareed Mahdy is special correspondent of IDN-InDepthNews Service
Copyright © 2009 IDN-InDepthNews Service
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