ANKARA, Jan 19, (Agencies): Iran’s foreign minister warned Arab neighbours on Thursday not to put themselves in a “dangerous position” by aligning themselves too closely with the United States in the escalating dispute over Tehran’s nuclear activity.
Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, used for a third of the world’s seaborne oil trade, if pending Western moves to ban Iranian crude exports cripple its lifeblood energy sector, fanning fears of a descent into wider Middle East war.
European Union foreign ministers are expected at a meeting on Monday to agree an oil embargo against Iran and a freeze on the assets of its central bank, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said, confirming diplomatic leaks.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s No. 1 oil exporter, riled Iran earlier this week when it said it could swiftly raise oil output for key customers if needed, a scenario that could transpire if Iranian exports were embargoed.
“We want peace and tranquility in the region. But some of the countries in our region, they want to direct other countries 12,000 miles away from this region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in English during a visit to Turkey.
The remark was an apparent reference to the alliance of Iran’s Arab neighbours with Washington, which maintains a big naval force in the Gulf and says it will keep the waterway open.
“I am calling to all countries in the region, please don’t let yourselves be dragged into a dangerous position,” Salehi told Turkey’s NTV broadcaster.
He added the United States should make clear that it was open for negotiations with Tehran without conditions. He referred to a letter Iran says it received from US President Barack Obama about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, the contents of which have not been made public.
“Mr Obama sent a letter to Iranian officials, but America has to make clear that it has good intentions and should express that it’s ready for talks without conditions,” he said.
“Out in the open they show their muscles but behind the curtains they plead to us to sit down and talk. America has to pursue a safe and honest strategy so we can get the notion that America this time is serious and ready.”
The United States, like other Western countries, says it is prepared to talk to Iran but only if Tehran agrees to discuss halting its enrichment of uranium. Western officials say Iran has been asking for talks “without conditions” as a stalling tactic while refusing to put its nuclear programme on the table.
IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief said it was his duty to alert the world about possible military aspects to Iran’s nuclear campaign, keeping the heat on Tehran ahead of a rare visit by senior IAEA officials for talks on Jan 29-31.
“What we know suggests the development of nuclear weapons,” he was quoted as saying in comments published in the Financial Times Deutschland on Thursday. “We want to check over everything that could have a military dimension.”
An IAEA delegation, to be headed by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, is expected to seek explanations for intelligence information indicating Iran has engaged in research and development relevant for nuclear weapons.
Tehran denies wanting bombs, saying it is refining uranium only for electricity generation and medical applications.
Salehi said on Wednesday that Iran was in touch with world powers to reopen talks that he expected to be held soon.
Washington and the EU quickly denied this, saying they are still waiting for Iran to show it wanted serious negotiations addressing fears that it trying to master ways to build atom bombs behind the facade of a civilian nuclear energy programme.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after meeting Salehi that all sides were willing to resume talks but the time and place need to be settled. “I will tell Ms Ashton about the talks today,” he told reporters, referring to the EU foreign policy chief who represents the powers on Iran.
Iranian politicians said Obama had expressed readiness to negotiate in a letter to Iran’s clerical supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“In this letter it was said that closing the Strait of Hormuz is our (US) ‘red line’ and also asked for direct negotiations,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted lawmaker Ali Mottahari as saying.
Washington denied there were any new discussions under way about resuming talks with Iran, but declined to comment on whether Obama had written to Khamenei.
“There are no current talks about talks,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Wednesday.
“What we are doing, as we have said, is making clear to the Iranians that if they are serious about coming back to a conversation, where they talk openly about their nuclear programme, and if they are prepared to come clean with the international community, that we are open to that.”
The Islamic Republic has wanted to discuss only broader international security issues with the powers up to now.
Sanctions
The stage was set for international oil sanctions against Iran when Obama signed legislation on Dec 31 that would freeze out any institution dealing with Iran’s central bank, making it impossible for most countries to buy Iranian crude.
Diplomats said the EU’s 27 member states were still mulling details such as when an embargo would start. They were looking into a grace period that would end in July to help some debt-ridden EU states that rely on Iranian oil to adjust to a ban.
“On the central bank, things have been moving in the right direction...,” an EU diplomat said. “There is now wide agreement on the principle. Discussions continue on the details.”
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao defended his country’s extensive oil trade with Iran against Western sanctions pressure in comments published on Thursday. Nevertheless, he said, Beijing firmly opposes any Iranian effort to acquire nuclear weapons.
The last talks between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — along with Germany stalled in Istanbul a year ago, with the parties unable to agree even on an agenda.
The six have also failed to agree on a common line in their approach to Iran, a lack of unity that led to a watering down of four earlier rounds of UN sanctions adopted since 2006.
An IAEA report in November lent weight to concerns that Iran has worked on designing a nuclear weapon, and Tehran is shifting enrichment to an underground bunker in a mountain fortified against air attack.
Israel, which is believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal but sees Iran’s nuclear ambitions as a mortal threat, and the United States have not ruled out military action as a last resort to prevent an atomic “breakout” by Tehran.
However, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday that any decision about an Israeli assault on Iran was “very far off.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the last-ditch military option mooted by US and Israeli leaders would ignite a disastrous, widespread Middle East war. Russia also opposes the new push for oil sanctions, calling it counterproductive.
Japan is likely to cut Iranian crude purchases in about three months, the head of an industry body said on Thursday, a reassuring message for US officials touring Asia to muster support for sanctions aimed at starving Iran of oil revenue.
The remarks by Akihiko Tembo, president of the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ), could also help clear up some doubts about Japan’s response to the sanctions after conflicting comments by policymakers.
Last week the prime minister had distanced himself from a pledge by the finance minister to reduce Iran’s crude imports.
“I think each buyer is considering this in a practical way and making efforts to reduce nominations (for Iranian crude) as much as possible and find alternatives,” Tembo said in a regular press briefing. He is also chairman of Japan’s No.3 refiner Idemitsu Kosan.
“I think there will be less planned volumes than before in a three-month time.”
US Treasury and State Department officials in Tokyo have held meetings with Japanese officials since Wednesday to explain a US law intended to curb Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon.
Like other Asian buyers of Iranian oil, Japan is under pressure to cut imports from the world’s fifth-largest crude exporter to secure a waiver from the sanctions. The Foreign Ministry said on Thursday Japan had reiterated in meetings with US officials that it wanted a waiver from the sanctions.
The United States says it will punish financial institutions that deal with Iran’s central bank, the main clearing house for oil revenue. A country can earn a waiver from the sanctions if it significantly reduces trade with Iran.
Bomb
A former Israeli military intelligence chief says Iran has all the components to build a nuclear bomb, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday.
It was not clear whether Amos Yadlin, who retired in November 2010, was referring to the mechanical elements of a bomb or implying the Iranians have sufficient weapons-grade uranium, a critical ingredient for bombmaking.
Still, his remarks reflect the prevalent view in Israel that Iran is on the cusp of producing a bomb — a view at odds with the American assessment that Iran won’t have bombmaking capabilities for years.
“If the Iranians get together tonight and decide to secretly develop a bomb, then they have all the resources and components to do so,” Yadlin told Maariv.
Israel considers Iran to be the most fearsome of its foes, citing its nuclear program, arsenal of long-range missiles and repeated references to Israel’s destruction. It has been lobbying the international community for years to block Tehran from becoming a nuclear power.
Tehran claims its nuclear program is designed solely to produce energy and medical isotopes, not weapons. But a report late last year by the UN atomic energy agency bolstered the Israeli and US contention that Iran wants to manufacture weapons.
On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Iran has not started to actually make bombs because that could draw harsher international sanctions and other actions against it.
International anxieties over Iran’s intentions have intensified in recent weeks over US and European moves to step up sanctions against Tehran, Iranian threats to shut down a key channel for the world’s oil supply if Iranian oil exports are blocked, and the assassination of the deputy director of an Iranian uranium enrichment site.
In this jittery climate, the US military chief, Army Gen Martin Dempsey, is due to arrive later Thursday in Israel on his first official visit. Israeli media analysts have speculated he will warn Israel not to launch a military assault against Iran.