Status of reported Iran deal still unclear
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-12 11:31

Rice, speaking Thursday en route to Iraq, said "there is no U.S.-European proposal to the Iranians. ... There isn't and there won't be."

Lavrov, in Moscow, sidestepped a question asking whether such a proposal existed.

He said, however, that "different options are being discussed by experts, diplomats and nuclear experts."

"We expect that this question will be resolved in the near future," he said.

Russian news agencies reported that Igor Ivanov, the head of President Vladimir Putin's Security Council, had traveled to Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders. Ivanov arrived in Tehran in the evening and was scheduled to meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, seen here in October 2005.[AFP/file]

Ivanov said both sides will discuss bilateral relations in addition to the nuclear issue, the RIA-Novosti news agency said.

Iran's nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said Friday his country had not received the reported compromise proposal, but he indicated general opposition to it.

"Iran stands for enrichment by itself. Iran wants to have it on its own soil. Enrichment in another country would serve that country," state television quoted Larijani as saying.

He nonetheless added that Iran remains open to offers: "Any proposal would be considered."

The stakes are high for all sides, said Ian Davis, an analyst with the British-American Security Information Council, who said relations between Iran and the West were "spiraling toward a greater crisis.

"We need to be thinking about how to break the logjam in a little bit more creative way than before," he said.

The IAEA on Nov. 24 plans to discuss whether to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions connected to its nuclear program. An agreement before then could avert a vote and likely avoid straining relations between Russia and the United States, both of which have veto power on the Security Council.

The matter has troubled Moscow-Washington relations for years. Iran's nuclear program centers on the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant, an $800 million project that is a significant source of income for Russia as well as an emblem of its technological sophistication.

Russia in the past has floated various ideas for overcoming Western concerns, including enrichment in Russia, and it has assured the West that Iran will send back to Russia all the reactor's spent fuel rods, which could be processed into plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.

The dispute also has strained Iran's relations with Britain, one of the three EU negotiators.

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