Europeans call off nuclear talks with Iran

PARIS -- European powers have called off Aug. 31 talks with Iran about its nuclear program, France said yesterday, marking a breakdown in two years of negotiations with Tehran to halt its sensitive atomic work.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said talks on a formal European proposal made earlier this month would not go ahead because Iran had resumed certain nuclear work in breach of a promise to freeze it while talks lasted.

Iran shrugged off the cancellation, but Washington voiced US support for the decision.

Britain, France, and Germany, acting on behalf of the European Union, put the proposal to Iran in an effort to persuade it to give up nuclear activities that the West suspects may be preliminary steps toward making atomic weapons.

''There will, in fact, be no negotiations meeting on Aug. 31, since the Iranians have decided to suspend application of the Paris agreement," Mattei said in a news briefing.

Under the Paris agreement, reached in November 2004, Iran voluntarily suspended all work related to atomic fuel production while negotiating a permanent deal with the EU.

Earlier this month, the EU trio offered a package of economic, technical, and political measures in exchange for a permanent suspension of Iranian efforts to make nuclear fuel.

Iran rejected the proposals, which also envisaged the Aug. 31 talks, and angered the EU and the United States by resuming uranium conversion at its Isfahan plant Aug. 8.

Yesterday, senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian said Tehran had merely carried out a threat delivered to Britain, Germany, and France in Geneva in May.

''In Geneva, we told the three European ministers clearly that if Europe's proposal did not contain Iran's right to uranium enrichment, it would be rejected and Isfahan [facility] would be restarted," he told the Mehr news agency.

He said the decision to restart Isfahan would not be reversed, but Iran is open to talks with the EU on resuming the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle -- uranium enrichment -- at its facility in Natanz.

''Iran is keeping Natanz enrichment suspended and has nothing against negotiating with Europe," he said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack voiced US support for the European nations' decision.

''We believe that Iran should abide by its Paris commitments. It has broken those commitments," he said. ''All we are trying to do is get to the truth about the Iranian nuclear weapons program, and at every turn, the Iranians obfuscate and try to change the subject. The focus should be on Iran's behavior."

Iran's new chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said this week that Tehran would shortly propose a new initiative for the stalled nuclear talks.

Despite calling off the Aug. 31 talks, the European powers remained in contact with Iran, Mattei said.

The EU and the United States suspect Iran of secretly trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran says it wants nuclear technology only to meet booming electricity demand, not to make bombs.

If Iran continues to defy international pressure, Europe and the United States are likely to press the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran's case to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.