MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Goncharov.)-- The decision on imposing sanctions against Iran has been put off until March.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that in the course of London negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue, the European Trio, Russia, the United States and China, had agreed to report the matter to the UN Security Council following an emergency session of the IAEA Board to be held February 2-3, and to defer any further actions on its part until March 2006.
In March, at a scheduled session of the IAEA Board, the agency's head ElBaradei will report on Iran's nuclear program. So Iran has got some breathing space until then but only on condition that the moratorium on uranium enrichment is reintroduced in full.
Now it is Tehran's turn. An Iranian delegate to an IAEA Board session on Thursday will have to give a clear answer on whether Iran is ready to give up its right to enrich uranium. And its key opponents, the European Troika and the United States, as well as Russia and China are unlikely to accept an evasive answer.
Before the London meeting, representatives of the European Trio said they were certain Iran's nuclear dossier would be submitted to the UN Security Council, and Washington actually insisted on this.
The position of the European Trio and the United States on Iran is based on Tehran's evasive tactics. This also applies to the Tehran-Moscow dialogue on Russia's proposal to create a joint venture on uranium enrichment on its territory, which the European Trio and the U.S. see as a possible way out of the deadlock.
However, Tehran has not been consistent here either. Ali Laridjani, Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, who visited Moscow last week called the Russian proposal "positive" but said it still needed work as it lacked "potential" to guarantee success in the coming Russian-Iranian negotiations .
"We would like to take part in uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes and are negotiating the matter," said Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham on the eve of the emergency session of the IAEA Board. "But we will never give up our legitimate rights," he said.
Since the Russian-Iranian negotiations are to be held on February 16 and are almost doomed to failure, Tehran's recent statements are unlikely to change the opinion of its tactics both in negotiations with the European Trio and in its cooperation with the IAEA.
Obviously, they would make it clear to Tehran that its nuclear program and ambitions to develop a complete nuclear fuel cycle and possibly nuclear weapons actually render the Non-proliferation Treaty useless. Sooner or later the global community will have to make a choice between Iran's right to develop its own nuclear technologies and stability in such an explosive region as the Middle East. No doubt it will opt for the latter.
