By Ladane Nasseri and Gregory Viscusi Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — The first talks in more than a year between Iranian negotiators and the leading United Nations powers on the country’s nuclear program opened in Geneva after signals that Iran won’t temper its atomic ambitions. Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili , began meeting today in an 18th century villa outside the Swiss city with representatives of the five permanent United Nations Security Council members — the U.S, Russia, China, France and Britain — plus Germany. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday said in Tehran that “the negotiators can adopt any policy they want, but we won’t be harmed.” Mistrust of the West, which is threatening further sanctions if Iran doesn’t curb the nuclear program, has intensified since challengers to Ahmadinejad staged mass protests against his June re-election, saying it was rigged. Dozens of demonstrators were killed when Iran’s clerical regime gave orders to quash the protests, which it said were provoked by the U.S. and U.K. The crackdown has sidelined opponents of Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , who favored a less confrontational stance toward the West. Before today’s meeting, Iran’s leaders said they would only discuss global nuclear disarmament and other security issues. The revelation of a second uranium-enrichment site has heightened U.S. and European concern that Iran may be developing weapons. Direct Talks White House officials reiterated yesterday that there would be opportunities for direct discussions between the U.S. and Iran during today’s session in Geneva. An official noted that the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker , had held one- on-one talks with Iranian officials on issues stemming from the conflict in Iraq. The Iranian government needs “to get serious” in the talks in Geneva,” U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said. “Our message to Iran is simple: Do not mistake respect for weakness,” Miliband told a conference of the U.K.’s ruling Labour Party today in Brighton, England. “You do have the rights to civilian nuclear power, and we are happy for you to exercise them, but not if the price is plunging the Middle East into a nuclear arms race that is a danger to the whole world.” Today’s talks at the Villa de Saugy on Lake Geneva began shortly after 10 a.m. local time. Jalili and Javier Solana , the European Union’s foreign policy chief and the point man for the world’s powers involved in the talks, posed for photographs outside the villa. They then moved inside to an oval table where Iran’s three-man delegation sat facing Solana and the political directors of the six world powers. ‘Hardliners’ in Power “The hardliners are in power now,” said Geneive Abdo, an Iran expert at the Century Foundation , a New York-based research group. “Khamenei is taking a tough and aggressive posture, consistent with his position since the election crisis, when he blamed the West for the unrest.” The U.S. and its European allies cite Iran’s development of a second uranium-enrichment plant as evidence that the country is flouting UN restrictions on its nuclear program, and say new sanctions may be needed to bring it into line. The underground facility “continues a disturbing pattern of Iranian evasion,” President Barack Obama said on Sept. 26. Iran said it followed standard procedures by notifying the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency last month about the plant, which is 18 months from completion. It says its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity, and has invited the UN to inspect the new enrichment site, in a mountain near Qom, a city revered by Shiite Muslims. ‘Measurable Results’ A senior U.S. government official, meeting with journalists in Geneva before the talks, said the U.S. and its allies are looking for Iran to implement “practical steps and measurable results” to ensure that its nuclear program isn’t aimed at producing weapons. Solana said earlier this week that today’s talks must focus on Iran’s nuclear program, not wider regional issues. At the last meeting, in July 2008 in Geneva, Jalili lectured about regional threats to Iran and the talks broke up without results. He also said Iran wants to buy enriched uranium from another nation for a nuclear reactor in Tehran. A U.S. official speaking in Geneva yesterday said Ahmadinejad was referring to a research reactor in Tehran and that it was highly unlikely that the U.S. would provide fuel or enriched uranium to Iran. Goodwill Gesture In a potential goodwill gesture, the U.S. yesterday allowed Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to visit his country’s interest section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, the first such visit in more than eight years. The U.S. and Iran haven’t had direct diplomatic relations in almost three decades. Iran wants to keep the option of becoming a nuclear power and is playing for time by entering into negotiations without conceding any ground, Mark Thomas, a Gulf security expert in Doha, Qatar, for the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies , said by e-mail. It probably will “hold out the prospect of concessions, whilst continuing a strategy of stalling in order to achieve a ‘break-out’ nuclear weapons capability,” he said. The Iranian opposition, weakened by a campaign of arrests and public trials since the protests, has steered clear of criticizing the government’s nuclear program. Opposition’s Mousavi Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi , who claimed victory in the election and led protests after it, said on Sept. 28 he opposed any sanctions against Iran. During the campaign, Mousavi had defended Iran’s right to nuclear technology while criticizing Ahmadinejad for inflaming tensions with the West through aggressive rhetoric. The nuclear program began under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi , who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. While Iran suspended uranium enrichment in 2003 as a goodwill gesture when Mohammad Khatami was president, subsequent talks with European nations to resolve international concerns over its atomic work led nowhere. That was a “bitter” experience for Iran, Ahmadinejad said on Sept. 25. The UN between December 2006 and March 2008 imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend enrichment of uranium, which can produce material for a nuclear reactor or a bomb. The measures ban the sale of any equipment that could be used in Iran’s nuclear program, block travel by certain individuals, and cut links to Iranian banks and companies involved in the program. The U.S. has its own set of sanctions which amount to a near trade embargo. December Deadline French President Nicolas Sarkozy said last week that Iran has until December to prove the peaceful nature of its nuclear program or face tightened sanctions. In recent weeks Iran has sought to widen its sources of refined petroleum fuel, suggesting it may be preparing for further sanctions. The world’s fourth-largest oil producer, Iran imports at least one-third of its domestic fuel needs because it doesn’t have enough refineries. U.S. lawmakers are pushing for a ban on gasoline exports to Iran by foreign companies, in addition to restrictions proposed by the Obama administration on Iranian access to oil and gas technology. Venezuelan Gasoline Venezuela has said it is ready to supply 20,000 barrels of gasoline a day to Iran starting this month, and Chinese companies are now providing as much as 40,000 barrels a day — or one-third of all imports — via third parties, said Lawrence Eagles, head of commodities research at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. It is unlikely Iran will agree to strict international supervision of its facilities, even if the U.S. allows some enrichment to continue, said Ali Pedram , an Iran expert at Durham University in the U.K. “The door to a deal is not closed, but the road is even bumpier than before,” he said. “There is a high wall of distrust.” Iran, as signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has the right to enrich uranium for power generation as long it agrees to outside surveillance. The Security Council has ordered Iran to stop enrichment five times, arguing that its past concealment efforts put the peaceful intentions of its nuclear program in doubt. None of the three nuclear powers in Iran’s neighborhood — Israel, Pakistan, and India – has signed the NPT. To contact the reporters on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Geneva at gviscusi@bloomberg.net ; Ladane Nasseri in Geneva at lnasseri@bloomberg.net .
