Germany warns Iran: compromise on nuke program or be prepared for new sanctions

Germany, IAEA chief urge Iran to compromise

VIENNA — The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Germany’s foreign minister urged Iran Wednesday to shift from nuclear confrontation to cooperation, with the German official warning Tehran only had limited time to avoid possible new U.N. sanctions.

At a joint news conference with Guido Westerwelle of Germany, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei also spoke against Tehran’s attempts to change a plan he brokered. The plan is meant to delay Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon by having most of its enriched uranium stockpile removed from the country and returned in the form of fuel rods to power a research reactor.

It appeared to be ElBaradei’s firmest rejection to date of Iranian attempts to modify the proposal to a version that would allow it to keep all of its enriched material By doing so, he joined the U.S. and its allies, which insist the deal is dead unless Tehran agrees to ship out 70 percent of its enriched uranium as the material for the fuel rods.

Iran now has enough enriched uranium for up to two nuclear weapons. If stripped of 70 percent of that material — as the plan envisions — its ability to make such arms would be delayed for at least a year.

Tehran insists it wants to enrich only to power an envisaged nuclear reactor network. But fears that it could instead turn to making fissile highly enriched uranium for warheads have resulted in U.N. Security Council demands that it freeze enrichment — and three sets of U.N. sanctions, shrugged off by Tehran.

“You need the material (out) from Iran to defuse the crisis and open the space for negotiations,” ElBaradei told reporters. “Keeping the material in Iran will not lead to that.”

ElBaradei and Westerwelle of Germany spoke before a new challenge to Iran at a meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board that starts Thursday.

That meeting will be dealing with a six world-power resolution criticizing Tehran for ignoring U.N. Security Council and IAEA board demands and continuing to build its enrichment program — sometimes clandestinely. The six-power move to criticize Iran in the form of a draft resolution reflected international exasperation with perceived Iranian delaying tactics and refusal to heed pressure to compromise on its nuclear program.

The development is significant because it groups Russia and China with the four Western powers — the U.S., Britain, France and Germany — in unified criticism of Iran’s nuclear program. Russia and China have acted as a drag on Western calls for tougher action against Iran.

While the board passed an IAEA resolution critical of Iran in 2006 with the support of all six world powers, subsequent attempts by the West to get backing from all 35 board nations foundered on resistance from Russia and China.

Those two nations have also resisted U.S. and European calls for tougher U.N. sanctions against Iran for refusing to freeze its enrichment program.

While any board resolution is mostly symbolic, it does get reported to the Security Council. Beyond that, unified action in Vienna could signal that both Russia and China may be more amenable to a fourth set of Security Council sanctions on Iran than they have been in past years.