Talks in Iran Described as Constructive

Iran suggested Tuesday that it would seek changes in the package of incentives offered here on behalf of world powers by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, but comments made by both sides also made it clear that for now, diplomacy had replaced confrontation over Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

Ali Larijani, the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, and Solana, who was accompanied by the political directors for Britain, France, Germany and Russia, said they would be talking again in the coming days.

“We had constructive talks,” Larijani said. Solana “delivered certain proposals that they had been working on. These proposals contain a number of positive steps, and there are also ambiguities that have to be cleared up.

“I hope after we’ve had a chance to consider the proposals, we could have more talks so that we can reach a balanced and logical outcome,” Larijani said after the two-hour meeting.

In Laredo, Texas, President Bush described Iran’s reaction as “positive.”

“We will see if the Iranians take our offer seriously,” he told reporters. “The choice is theirs to make.”

The world powers are demanding that Iran halt work related to uranium enrichment in return for economic guarantees and more intangible support such as the West’s backing of its bid to join the World Trade Organization.

Key to the entire offer, however, is the U.S. decision, announced last week, to join the Europeans, Russia and China in talks with Iran if the Islamic Republic suspends enrichment-related activities. Many of the economic offers, some of which the EU also made nearly a year ago, cannot be delivered without U.S. backing because of legal and treaty requirements.

Among them is a guarantee that the United States would facilitate a European offer to provide Iran with a light-water reactor and other civilian nuclear technology.

Much of the light-water nuclear technology originates in the United States, and without American government approval, the Europeans could not provide it to Iran.

The decision to offer Iran help with a nuclear reactor is bound to be especially controversial because it is possible to harvest spent plutonium from such a plant and use it to manufacture material for an atomic bomb, scientists say.

“Spent fuel from a light-water reactor is harder to process” for use in a bomb, said David Albright, a former United Nations weapons inspector. “But nothing is proliferation-proof.”

Western powers are convinced that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at gaining the ability to make bombs. Tehran insists it wants nuclear technology only for civilian purposes.

The U.S. and the other countries have also committed to help Iran obtain new agricultural technology and to help its civil aviation sector, diplomats said. The U.S. currently refuses to sell anything to Iran, and the nation’s aging air fleet has suffered several fatal crashes. Tehran’s air authority routinely cannibalizes parts from one plane to keep another flying.

Because the U.S. owns the licenses to a number of parts, its endorsement is needed for the sale of parts as well as planes manufactured in other countries, such as French-made Airbus.

Technical assistance could also be part of the package, diplomats said.

A full list of the incentives has yet to be unveiled, and vaguer still are the penalties Iran might be subject to if it doesn’t accept the deal.

It is unclear whether Russia and China, which have resisted economic sanctions, have changed their stance.

Diplomats in Europe and people close to the Iranian government said they expected Iran to fight the requirement to halt its centrifuge operation and stop conversion of uranium yellowcake into uranium gas. Uranium in its gaseous form is what is fed into centrifuges for enrichment. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make a bomb.

“It’s unlikely they are going to give on that,” a European diplomat in Vienna said, noting that the last time Iran halted its centrifuge operation, a number of the delicate machines broke.

For the last two weeks, Iran has not been enriching uranium; the 164 centrifuges in its cascade have been spinning without any gas in them, said diplomats close to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.

The reason for the pause in enrichment is unclear, but it could be for technical reasons, while Iran tests other parts of the operation, or for political ends.

Iranian commentators said Tehran would almost certainly refuse to halt enrichment before beginning talks -- a condition of the offer.

One Iranian commentator, apparently privy to the details of the plan, said on state television that the condition was one of the sticking points. He said the formulation of the proposal was such that it left room for “haggling.”

For the moment, however, diplomats focused on the reestablishment of a diplomatic exchange.

Though there is no deadline for Iran to respond, the Russians have made it clear they want the negotiations finished before the Group of 8 meeting is held in St. Petersburg in mid-July.

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Times staff writer Rubin reported from Vienna, special correspondent Naji from Tehran and staff writer Richter from Washington.