UN atomic agency seeks new ideas in Iran stalemate

The UN atomic agency's 35-nation board of governors sought fresh thinking Monday in its impasse with Iran after two fruitless visits probing Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons drive. In a regular meeting due to last several days at the International Atomic Energy Agency's Vienna headquarters, Western powers hoped to convince Russia and China to back a strong resolution condemning Tehran, diplomats said. But with the board having already signed off at its last gathering in November a resolution of "deep and increasing concern", it was unclear whether another such motion would be possible -- or indeed useful -- this time. "We are still talking with our partners," one Western diplomat told AFP. Instead, discussions were expected to focus on other ways to make progress and prospects for the resumption of talks on another track, namely between Iran and the P5+1 powers -- the permanent members of the UN Security Council Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany. In a February 14 letter to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said Tehran was ready to resume talks -- the last effort collapsed in January 2011 -- at the "earliest" opportunity. Close attention meanwhile was also being paid to talks later Monday in Washington between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A November report by the IAEA substantially raising suspicions of a covert Iranian nuclear weapons programme has stoked speculation that Israel may try to knock out Iran's sprawling network of nuclear sites with air strikes. Obama on Sunday said there had been "too much loose talk of war", saying increased sanctions since November were biting but again warning Iran he would "not hesitate to use force when it is necessary". In a report sent to IAEA member states on February 24, watchdog chief Yukiya Amano said that after two trips to Iran by chief inspector Herman Nackaerts, on January 29-31 and February 20-21, "major differences" with Tehran remained. The Islamic Republic denied access to the Parchin military site near Tehran where the November dossier said suspicious high-explosives tests consistent with developing nuclear warheads were carried out, Amano said. A senior official familiar with the investigation said that the IAEA team was only able to speak to "middle men" and that the Iranians wanted to "constrain the process, and put us in a harness". Iranian officials repeated their assertion during the trips that the November report was based on forgeries, the agency said. Tehran says its nuclear programme is peaceful. North Korea, meanwhile, alongside a review of progress in improving nuclear safety close to a year since Japan's Fukushima disaster, will also be a talking point for the IAEA board. Last week, Washington announced that Pyongyang was ready to suspend its uranium enrichment programme along with nuclear and long-range missile tests, with IAEA inspectors -- kicked out in 2009 -- to monitor the deal.