EU: Iran Must Suspend All Civilian Enrichment, Nuclear Research

Will Demands Sabotage Vienna, Baghdad Talks?

The European Union is today issuing formal demands that Iran immediately halt not only all civilian enrichment of uranium, but to also abandon all nuclear research and development, saying this would be a vital “confidence building” measure.

The demand, needless to say, was rejected by Iran, which has repeatedly reiterated that it is going to continue enriching uranium to the low levels needed for energy generation at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

The timing of the demands is curious, coming just a week before the Iran-IAEA talks in Vienna and two weeks before the P5+1 talks in Baghdad, and the demands, seemingly far beyond what anyone expects Iran to be willing to do, only hurt the prospect of those talks.

Iran has expressed a willingness to abandon its higher enrichment of uranium for the Tehran Research Reactor, saying it is close to having enough to fuel the medical reactor for the foreseeable future at any rate. They have hoped to secure a deal that would see a reduction of sanctions imposed on them.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.