Brussels, 26/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - After three hours of intense negotiations at ministerial level in Geneva on Wednesday, which was described by the Iranians as a “last-chance meeting”, the EU-3 (Germany, France and the United Kingdom, negotiating on behalf of the EU) and Iran decided to take two months' breathing space in their quest for an agreement on Iran's nuclear programme, thus rescuing the negotiation process by preventing the matter being brought before the United Nations Security Council. After the talks, which brought together the foreign ministers of the EU-3, Joschka Fischer of Germany, Jack Straw of the UK and Michel Barnier of France, the EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, and the principal Iranian negotiator, Hassan Rohani, the last told the press that at the end of July, the Europeans would present Teheran with a raft of “concrete proposals” for cooperation. Teheran, for its part, will maintain the suspension of all uranium conversion activities. “The EU has undertaken to present Iran with a detailed proposal” (…). We feel that we should be able to reach a reasonable agreement in a relatively short period of time”, said Mr Rohani, adding that he now had to relay the offer to the Teheran authorities. “This result is important for us, because right from the start, one of our main reasons for concern was that negotiations were dragging on excessively”, Mr Rohani added.
The European proposals aim, amongst other things, to reinforce the agreement concluded in Paris last November, whereby Iran agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment activities in return for economic and technological incentives. According to Mr Barnier, the forthcoming European proposals “relate mainly to setting up a nuclear programme in Iran for exclusively civilian ends”. In exchange for transparency on the nuclear dossier, and to show that Iran's safety “is not necessarily to be achieved by the atom bomb”, the Europeans are also to propose a safety mechanism. Speaking to the press, Mr Straw said that Iran would maintain the freeze on sensitive nuclear activities and respect its commitment on the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme. “Whatever happens, reconciling divergent positions will be far from easy”, Mr Fischer warned, speaking in a television interview with the German channel ZDF. Washington reacted cautiously on Wednesday, reiterating its support for European efforts but also its doubts about the Iranian programme. Both sides hope that the next Iranian president will be able to conclude a definitive agreement. Akbar Hechemi Rafsandjani, President of Iran from 1989 to 1997, and who is emerging as the favourite in the presidential elections of June, told ZDF on Thursday that an agreement was possible. “Negotiations must be conducted on the basis of trust. We must convince the Europeans that our nuclear technology is used only for peaceful means”, he said.