BRUSSELS, March 22: The European Union will not resume trade talks with Iran because of worries over the country's nuclear programme, EU officials said on Monday, dashing Tehran's hopes of a potentially lucrative agreement.
Iran wants negotiations on a trade and cooperation agreement with the bloc to resume after they were put on hold last year because of doubts about its nuclear programme. The deal would give Iranian goods preferential access to European markets.
"The ministers did not resume discussions on the trade talks given that it is considered premature until Tehran makes more progress on the nuclear question and other political aspects," said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Islamic conservatives secured a big victory in parliamentary elections last month after some 2,500 reformist candidates were barred from standing by the non-elected Guardian Council in a poll promptly denounced as flawed by the EU.
The bloc has been pursuing a policy of constructive engagement towards Iran as it presses for greater openness over the country's nuclear programme, unlike the United States which is trying to isolate Tehran.
Washington accuses Iran of using its nuclear power programme as a front to build a bomb. Iran denies it, saying the nuclear programme is solely for electricity generation. EU foreign ministers expressed "serious concern that a number of questions in relation to Iran's nuclear programme remain outstanding," in conclusions after their meeting.
They welcomed a decision by Iran in February to extend suspension of uranium enrichment-related and processing activities, but the Council of EU foreign ministers wanted more.
"It calls on Iran to start, in accordance with this decision, immediately, comprehensively and verifiably with the full suspension of all such activities; and...to refrain from all fuel cycle activities which can be used to produce fissile materials for nuclear weapons," they said. An EU official said Iran was being more open on its nuclear programme, but had still not gone far enough.
IAEA CHIEF: Iran's government should be completely transparent with nuclear inspectors to clear its name and prove the country's nuclear programme is solely for civilian use, UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Sunday.
"Transparency is an absolute key if they want to clear their name and for us to be able to conclude that the programme is completely for peaceful purposes," Mr ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on CNN's "Late Edition."
Iran has been cooperating fully with the IAEA, but the discovery of the extent of its programme has created skepticism, he said. ElBaradei said he hoped to touchdown in Iran "in the next couple of weeks."
Iran's government has said IAEA inspectors can return to the country on March 27, after originally postponing an early March mission in order to protest against the agency's tough resolution against the Islamic Republic.
"Iran had agreed to fully suspend its enrichment programme as a confidence-building measure, so we have to acknowledge we have made a good headway along our effort to make sure that (the) Iran programme is completely for peaceful purpose," the United Nation's inspector said.
"However, in the process we have discovered ... that this is a sophisticated programme, it's an extensive programme and it's a programme that has been undeclared for over 15 years," he said. "And in that context, as you understand, there's still a lot of skepticism that something might still be hidden," he added. ElBaradei, who took part in UN weapons inspections inside Iraq prior to the US-led invasion, said inspections had dismantled Iraq's nuclear programme in 1997.
"We learned from Iraq that an inspection takes time, that we should be patient, that an inspection can, in fact, work," he said. But Iraq should have been transparent with inspectors, he added. "But one of the lessons that, if a country really wants to show to the world that its programmes are peaceful, weapons of mass destruction programme are peaceful, they ought to be transparent, they ought to take a proactive approach." -AFP
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