TEHRAN,
January 29, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iran will
resume on Monday, January 30, talks with Britain, France and Germany
on its nuclear program, as India shrugged off on Sunday, January 29,
US pressures to vote against Iran at the upcoming meeting of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Official
media said the Iranian delegation would be headed by senior nuclear
negotiator Javad Vaidi, but gave no details on the agenda for the
discussions, which will come just days before the IAEA emergency
meeting, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The
doors for negotiation are open and we can still find a formula to
reach a conclusion," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi
told reporters.
The
EU-3 and the United States are pushing IAEA members to refer Iran to
the UN Security Council, claiming Tehran is using a nuclear energy
drive as a cover for weapons development.
Asefi
dismissed the IAEA meeting, scheduled for February 2, as
"politicized" and said "dealing with Iran's case
outside the IAEA will not solve anything".
Pressures
on Iran were heightened earlier this month when the country announced
it was suspending a voluntary moratorium and resuming sensitive
nuclear research work.
Tehran
maintains that its nuclear program is for strictly peaceful purposes,
and says it is cooperating with a now three-year-old IAEA
investigation.
British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Saturday, January 28, that diplomacy
was still possible even as other leaders made clear that bringing Iran
before the Security Council for possible sanctions was still very much
on the cards.
Russian
Proposal
Asefi
said talks with Russia on a potential compromise needed more time.
"It
can be a useful plan if seen as a package. The plan needs more work on
it," added the spokesman.
Moscow's
idea to enrich uranium outside Iran is seen as a possible solution to
the standoff and has received cautious and conditional support from
the US and the EU.
Moscow
is proposing that sensitive nuclear fuel work -- which could
potentially be diverted to produce nuclear weapons – be conducted
outside the Islamic republic as a way of preventing Iran from
acquiring bomb-making technology but also guaranteeing its access to
nuclear energy.
Iran
has repeatedly said it would never abandon its drive to enrich uranium
on its own soil.
But
in a bid to allay increased international tension, Tehran has signaled
a leaning towards accepting the compromise solution.
Defiant
India
In
a related development, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted
Sunday that his country will not be pressured into voting against Iran
in this week's IAEA meeting.
"We
will do what is right for the country. India's national interest is
the prime concern whether it is domestic or foreign policy,"
Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
"We
will not come under pressure. We will do the right thing for the
country. Our prime concern is to protect and safeguard India's
enlightened national interest," he added.
US
Ambassador in New Delhi David Mulford warned last week that a historic
deal to provide India with American nuclear technology might fall
through unless it votes against Iran at the IAEA meeting.
Mulford
said a prospective deal for the United States to transfer civilian
nuclear technology to India would "die" in the US Congress
if India voted against a resolution on Iran.
During
the IAEA meeting in Vienna in September, India voted with the United
States, Britain, France and Germany to chide Iran for its nuclear
program.
The
US is also pressuring Russia and China, both veto-wielding Security
Council members, to back the referral of the Iranian file to the
Security Council.
Experts
say Russia and China face important strategic setbacks if the Iran
nuclear issue is referred to the Security Council, and will fight
behind the scenes to prevent this.