Top Bush administration officials warn Iran

But Herbert Honsowitz, the chief German representative to the IAEA, told the AP that was a misinterpretation, with the Germans only expressing “appreciation” to the Russians for trying to come up with new approaches to the deadlock on enrichment.

Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said Tuesday his country was not prepared to freeze small-scale enrichment.

“We’ve spent a lot on this,” said Soltanieh, outside the IAEA board meeting.

Seeking a common stance
As the board meeting entered its second day, German representatives were meeting with counterparts from France and Britain — which both back the Americans in opposing the plan — to try to re-establish a common European stance on enrichment, the diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for divulging confidential information, told The Associated Press.

A European official in Vienna for the meeting said that ultimately the plan would fail if the Americans opposed it.

The dispute, which surfaced in the last few days, was driving a wedge into joint international efforts to wean Iran of all enrichment activity by moving it to Russia, thereby reducing its potential for misuse by Tehran.

The original Russian plan that surfaced last year and is backed by the Americans and the European Union would have stripped the Iranians of all enrichment potential.

ElBaradei still hopeful
The diplomats said IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei backed the plan. On Monday, he told reporters a deal on Iran’s suspect nuclear program could be only a few days away, making U.N. Security Council action unneeded. Though he did not elaborate, his optimism appeared linked to the Russian proposal on limited enrichment.

“I am still very much hopeful that in the next week an agreement could be reached,” ElBaradei said.

China’s foreign minister also appealed for more negotiations, suggesting no need for Security Council involvement.

“Iran should cooperate closely with the IAEA to settle the nuclear dispute,” Li said.

The Americans remained unconvinced. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in Washington that “unless Iran does a dramatic about-face,” he expected the issue to be taken up by the Security Council.

Diplomatic wrangling
Rice later telephoned ElBaradei “to reiterate the U.S. position that Iran should cease all enrichment-related activity,” said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

In response, ElBaradei agreed that Iran must not be allowed to have enrichment activity on its territory, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not in position to speak for the IAEA.

There was no official IAEA response. But a diplomat familiar with ElBaradei’s stance questioned the U.S. version of ElBaradei’s position, saying the IAEA chief remained convinced there was no alternative to allowing Iran some enrichment activity as a way of reaching a deal.

The Russian proposal described by the diplomats would allow Tehran to conduct small-scale uranium enrichment, and would ask the IAEA to set the parameters of such activity to minimize the chances of abuse.

In return, the diplomats said, Iran would be asked to recommit to in-depth IAEA probes of its program on short notice. Iran canceled such investigations last month after the IAEA’s 35-nation board put the U.N. Security Council on alert by passing on Iran’s nuclear dossier.

France, Britain and Germany broke off negotiations on behalf of the European Union with Iran last year after it resumed enrichment-related activities, which can produce both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads. Since then, they, the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan have been at the forefront of efforts to have the U.N. Security Council take up the Iran issue.

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