Diplomats Eye Long-Term Iran Plan

Senior diplomats from six key nations that have been struggling to find a way to deal with Iran's suspect nuclear program will try to take a longer, strategic view of the standoff in discussions Monday, U.N. ambassadors said.

Representatives from the five veto-wielding U.N. Security Council nations — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — as well as Germany will be holding talks as the council tries to overcome differences on a statement demanding a quick report on Iran's nuclear program.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the meeting Monday "will basically consider the longer-range issues, although obviously in the capitals in Moscow and Beijing, certainly, they will now have a look" at the latest text of the Security Council statement, and hopefully the senior diplomats will have instructions "that will allow us to make progress."

Bolton said he would like to see agreement on the statement when the Security Council meets again on Tuesday afternoon.

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry also said he hoped the high-level diplomats meeting Monday would "look at the wider strategy of how we develop our relations with Iran." He added: "But let's be clear that negotiation of the (statement) will be done in the council."

The six countries agree that Iran should not develop nuclear weapons, but they differ on the best way to get Tehran to halt uranium enrichment, which can be used either in a civilian nuclear program to generate electricity or to produce nuclear arms.

Russia and China, which are Iran's allies, have said tough council action could spark an Iranian withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and eventually lead to tougher measures, such as sanctions. They want the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to remain in the lead in dealing with Iran.

The United States, Britain and France want a statement listing demands already made by the IAEA — including the suspension of uranium enrichment and steps toward greater transparency and more cooperation. They also want IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to report to the council on Iran's progress in meeting the demands in two weeks, which Russia and China say is much too soon.

A U.N. diplomat in Vienna, Austria, said Saturday that Britain may float a plan at Monday's meeting to draw the United States into new talks with Tehran by having the five permanent Security Council members sit at the same table with the Iranians.

The members would offer Tehran a new but unspecified package of incentives in exchange for a negotiated settlement on uranium enrichment, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the strategy was confidential.

Negotiations between Iran and France, Germany and Britain, acting on behalf of the European Union, collapsed in August after Tehran rejected an incentives package offered in return for a permanent end to uranium enrichment. Its subsequent moves to develop full-blown enrichment capabilities led the IAEA's 35-nation board to ask for Security Council involvement earlier this year.