US president Barack Obama said yesterday time was running out for diplomacy in a dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme, but a top Iranian official said it was up to the West to show it sincerely wanted a deal.
Russia and France, both involved in talks with Iran over what the West fears are its plans for an atomic bomb, also put pressure on Tehran, with French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner saying the Islamic republic looked set to reject a UN-drafted accord.
Mr Obama suggested patience was running low in the dispute with Iran, which faces possible harsher international sanctions or even Israeli military action.
“Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran appears to have been unable to say yes to what everyone acknowledges is a creative and constructive approach,” Mr Obama said after talks with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore. “We are running out of time with respect to that approach.”
Repeating previous Russian language, Mr Medvedev said “other means” could be used if discussions did not yield results, but did not specify what they might be.
A draft deal brokered by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calls on Iran to send some 75 per cent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France to be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.
A senior adviser to Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said no official response to the proposal had been announced.
“We are waiting to see how much sincerity the western countries have in their pledges,” said Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi.
Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani said US policy including steps to renew sanctions showed Mr Obama was no better than his predecessor George W Bush. The remarks in the legislature prompted chants from deputies of “Death to America”.
Asked by an Israeli newspaper whether a final Iranian decision was pending, Mr Kouchner said: “You could phrase it that way, but in effect the answer has almost been given already, and it is negative. That’s a shame, a shame, a shame.
“We demanded to take a large quantity because we do not want them, while we are enriching uranium on their behalf, to continue themselves enriching uranium which could one day be used for military purposes, he told Yedioth Ahronoth daily.
Iranian pledges in Geneva talks with six powers on October 1st won Tehran a reprieve from sanctions targeting its oil sector, but western powers stressed they would not wait indefinitely for it to follow through.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said an end-of-year deadline for Iran remained.
Russian officials such as foreign minister Sergei Lavrov have said Washington was trying to push Moscow into a position of publicly threatening the imposition of sanctions soon if Iran did not play ball.
Iran says it is enriching uranium only for power plant fuel, not for nuclear warheads.