International negotiators scaled back several key demands on Iran
in a bid to advance negotiations aimed at curbing the country's nuclear
ambitions, as two days of talks finished with an agreement to meet
again in coming weeks.
Iran's
top nuclear negotiator called the meetings positive. But Western
officials cautioned that the latest two days of negotiations, held in
Almaty, Kazakhstan, didn't constitute major progress: Iran
has yet to signal clearly it will curtail its nuclear activities in
response to the offer, which included a proposal to ease some sanctions,
said European Union foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton.
"I believe in looking at what the results are," she said after talks ended. "We'll have to see what happens next."
The six nations that have been holding talks with Iran
stepped back from a demand that the country export its entire stockpile
of uranium that has been enriched to 20%, a level close to
weapons-grade. Instead, these countries offered to let Iran keep enough in the country to fuel a research reactor, a senior U.S. official said.
They also said that instead of shutting down enrichment at the
Fordo nuclear facility near the city of Qom, as previously demanded,
that enrichment must stop there. The six powers sought stepped-up
monitoring of such enrichment efforts, the official said.
The negotiators offered some easing of the tight web of sanctions that have cut Iran
off from the global financial system and driven down its currency, the
rial, over the past year, officials said. If Tehran takes the proposed
steps, it would win some lifting of nonoil-related and non-financial
sanctions, the senior U.S. official said. In addition, the six powers
could pledge not to push for fresh sanctions at the United Nations
Security Council.
Sanctions to be lifted would include restrictions on trade in gold and precious metals and on Iran's petrochemical sector, two other diplomats said.
In Paris, meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stressed Washington's willingness to meet with Iran's
top leaders as a means to advance negotiations on the nuclear program.
His comments were among the most direct to date by the Obama
administration reflecting its desire to set up a direct diplomatic
channel to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"The president has said publicly on any number of occasions,
and it's a matter of public record that he personally communicated to
the supreme leader, that he was prepared to engage and to discuss these
issues," Mr. Kerry said, appearing alongside his French counterpart,
Laurent Fabius.
Mr. Kerry also appeared to confer legitimacy on Iran's government, a departure from the State Department line that the country's 2009 presidential elections were deeply flawed. "Iran
is a country with a government that was elected and that sits in the
United Nations," Mr. Kerry said. "And it is important for us to deal
with nation-states in a way that acts in the best interests of all of us
in the world."
This week's talks, the first since June 2012, appeared to meet
the fairly low objectives set by European and U.S. officials -- that
they lead to additional talks. The sides agreed to hold expert-level
talks in Istanbul on March 18 and top-level discussions in Almaty on
April 5 and 6.
But in a process that has dragged on for almost a decade --
with three rounds of discussions last year making little progress -- Iran
has often agreed to negotiators' proposals only to press back later in
an apparent effort to buy time or seek relief from sanctions.
"It reminds me a bit of one year ago in Istanbul," said a
diplomat involved in the talks. "We thought something was happening and
maybe we could build on it. Frankly I'm not very pessimistic or
optimistic. . . . We still need a first concrete result."
In this week's talks, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany -- the so-called P5+1 -- pushed Iran
to suspend its enrichment of uranium to 20%, a level at which the fuel
has undergone most of the processing necessary to be used in forming the
core of a nuclear weapon. The P5+1 also urged Iran to take other steps to prove its nuclear activities are, as Tehran says, for peaceful purposes.
The nations said Iran must also take steps to ensure enrichment at Fordo can't be quickly resumed. Inspections across Iran must be tightened to ensure authorities comply, officials said.
The permanent security council members are the U.S., Britain, China, France and Russia.
Iran's
chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said the P5+1 proposal was
"more realistic comparing to what they said in the past," he said. Both
sides need to show "a positive and constructive approach and taking
reciprocal steps," he said.
Re-Engaging Tehran
Main elements of the P5+1's new package, according to diplomats
-- Iran must suspend enrichment of uranium at 20% purity, considered near weapons grade.
-- Offer would 'significantly restrict' stockpile of 20% enriched uranium held in Iran, a departure from the stance that it be exported for reprocessing. Iran would be allowed to produce enough fuel to run a research reactor that produces medical isotopes for cancer patients.
-- Iran
must suspend enrichment at underground Fordo site, near Qom, and
prevent enrichment from being quickly resumed. The previous plan had
called for the Fordo site to be shut down.
-- Monitoring of Iran's nuclear activities would be stepped up to ensure it sticks to the accord.