TEHRAN, Iran – Iran is in the “final stages” of negotiation with diplomats from the major European powers in a dispute over nuclear arms, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Saturday. But European envoys warned that a lasting agreement remains a long way off.
Iran has been asked to make a commitment not to enrich uranium – a process that can provide material for nuclear reactors as well as bombs.
Last month, envoys from Britain, France and Germany offered Iran a deal that included a light-water research reactor if Iran pledged to abandon uranium enrichment and related activities. In a subsequent round of talks that finished in Paris on Nov. 6, a tentative agreement was reached, according to representatives from all sides.
“The negotiations we had with Europeans were very intense and important,” Kharrazi said in an Iranian TV broadcast Saturday. “It’s in the final stages.”
Washington believes Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons under cover of a peaceful nuclear program, and President Bush has accused Iran of being part of an “axis of evil” with North Korea and prewar Iraq.
In a television interview to be aired today, Secretary of State Colin Powell told CNBC that the United States is not seeking a regime change in Iran and has no plans to invade the country.
Iran denies developing nuclear arms and has offered to provide guarantees that its program is strictly about producing electricity.
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