U.S. officials and independent analysts have expressed growing pessimism about the possibility of engaging Iran in negotiations aimed at ending its disputed nuclear activities, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, July 1).
Since taking office in 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has shown little interest in halting his nation's uranium enrichment program in exchange for political and economic benefits from the West. The United States and its allies suspect the enrichment effort is geared toward generating nuclear-weapon material, but Tehran has insisted the program would only produce nuclear power plant fuel.
President Barack Obama has expressed interest in holding the first multilateral nuclear talks with Iran since a brief session last summer (see GSN, July 21, 2008). Tehran this week dampened hopes of reconciliation, though, by barring the European Union from future nuclear talks due to an alleged role the organization played in recent Iranian election protests.
As the 27 EU member nations prepared to respond, Swiss Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt declared that European nations and others must avoid becoming "an excuse for use of violence or use of repression inside Iran." Switzerland currently holds the organization's rotating presidency.
The Obama administration remains willing to pursue diplomacy with Iran, said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice: "It's in the United States' national interest to make sure that we have employed all elements at our disposal, including diplomacy, to prevent Iran from achieving that nuclear capacity."
There is little chance that diplomacy would yield a successful outcome, said John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Iran enjoys strong domestic support for its uranium enrichment program, making Ahmadinejad unlikely to compromise on the effort to please Iranians upset over his disputed re-election.
"If Ahmadinejad wanted to reach out domestically, he would do so on domestic issues, because there is no sign there is any disagreement on the nuclear issue," Bolton said (George Jahn, Associated Press I/Miami Herald, July 1).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel today called on the Group of Eight industrialized nations to provide "a strong message of unity" against Iran's recent crackdown on election protests. However, she urged the powers to continue addressing the nation's nuclear program, AP reported.
"We cannot allow ourselves no longer to attend to the issue of a nuclear armament of Iran because the situation in Iran is the way it is. That would be absolutely wrong, and so we must pursue an internationally agreed path," she said (Geir Moulson, Associated Press II/PR-inside, July 2).
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by telephone not to complete the sale of an advanced air defense system to Iran, Haaretz reported Monday.
Israel has expressed concern that Russia's S-300 air defenses could potentially protect Iranian nuclear sites from Israeli air attacks.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hinted several weeks ago that Moscow might complete the sale, which was originally inked in 2008 but never fulfilled due to U.S. and Israeli pressure, said a respected political source in Jerusalem.
"It is a lot of money," Medvedev told Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. "There is an economic crisis at this time and we are having a very difficult time."
Medvedev suggested that Israel purchase the defenses instead, but Lieberman gave an unclear response to the proposal, according to the Maariv newspaper (Barak Ravid, Haaretz, June 29).