More nuclear footsy

Iran continues its dance with feckless European diplunacy over its nuclear program.

Skillfully playing various powers off each other, Iran continues to smile and make "no no, after you" gestures at the door. European diplomats smile in return, walk through the door thinking a deal is imminent, only to turn around and find Iran hasn't budged.

Russia has been trying in recent days to forestall UN action against Iran by trying to broker its own deal. As I wrote about here, Russia would like to use Iran as a counterweight against the US, though some in Russia are wary of getting too cozy with Iran, a chief sponsor of terrorism, given Russia's own problems with Islamic terrorists.

As this article explains:

Washington and its European allies will forgo pushing for Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council later this week, giving Russia more time in persuading Tehran to give up technology that could make nuclear arms, diplomats and officials told The Associated Press on Monday.
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But if the Russians fail to win over the Iranians, Washington and the Europeans hope Moscow and other key board members of the International Atomic Energy Agency now opposed to Security Council referral will moderate their opposition.

Russia proposed a deal whereby waste from Iran's reactors would be processed in Russia, the goal being Iran wouldn't be able to use the waste for weapons. (Perhaps playing the games diplomats play to give Iran some wiggle rrom, a Russian envoy in Tehran said a couple weeks ago there was no specific proposal.)

Iran has rejected Russia's proposal, however. Iran needs that waste for its weapons program, and isn't about to let it escape. According to this article from Nov 12:

The head of Iran's nuclear agency ruled out a compromise proposal to enrich uranium for his country's controversial nuclear program in Russia, saying Saturday the process must be done in Iran.

The United States and European negotiators reportedly were willing to accept the compromise to allow Iran to move ahead with its nuclear program while ensuring it does not produce atomic bombs. Enrichment can produce material either for a bomb or for nuclear reactor fuel.

Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also heads the country's nuclear agency, said Iran was open to other proposals, referring to an earlier Iranian idea that other countries participate in the enrichment process on Iranian soil as a guarantee the program is used only for peaceful purposes.

Today, in the face of this rejection, European diplomats said they want to negotiate more, rather than seeing Iran's true aims for what they are.

European Union powers are willing to revive nuclear talks with Iran to discuss a Russian proposal aimed at defusing an impasse over what the West believes is an Iranian atomic bomb programme, diplomats said on Tuesday.

Under Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal, Iran would be allowed to continue converting uranium ore but would ship it to Russia for enrichment, a system which, in theory, would prevent Iran from producing weapons-grade uranium.
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No official comment was available from Tehran. However, EU officials said Iran would probably react positively, given that the Europeans and Americans were prepared to drop their demand that all work at Isfahan come to a halt before talks resumed.
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On Monday, EU and U.S. officials said they would not push the IAEA's 35-nation board to refer Iran this week to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, as the Western powers had previously threatened to do.

The officials cited a desire to allow Iran more time to think about the Russian plan.

Iran doesn't need more time to consider, it needs to keep stalling the Europeans and the United States so it can finish its nuclear program.

Tick tick tick...

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See the excellent Regime Change Iran and its latest update, for more links on these and other related items.