Berlin: Senior diplomats from six world powers meet in the German capital on Thursday to discuss what to do with Iran after it ignored a UN Security Council deadline to freeze its nuclear enrichment programme.
The negotiators from Germany and the five permanent Security Council members – the US, Britain, France, Russia and China – were expected to consider the possibility of imposing sanctions on the Islamic republic for continuing to enrich uranium past the August 31 deadline, diplomats said.
Declining to give details about the talks, the first such meeting since the deadline expired, US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told reporters in Berlin he had "no doubt they will be very substantive and very serious".
Diplomats from several countries to be represented at the talks told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the US hoped to use the meeting to persuade Russia and China that it was time to increase pressure on Iran by preparing to ask the UN Security Council to consider sanctions.
"Washington believes it's time to consider sanctions and the EU3 (France, Britain and Germany) also see no signs that Iran is willing to stop enriching uranium. But it's going to be a hard sell for Russia and China," a European Union diplomat said.
Diplomats said Russia and China would probably want to know the outcome of a planned meeting between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani before discussing possible sanctions.
Referring to UNSC resolution 1696 passed on July 31, Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph, the top US non-proliferation official, told reporters that the Council had already struck the "fundamental bargain" by agreeing that sanctions should be the next step if Iran continued enriching.
But Russia and China have made it clear that they dislike the idea of sanctions and question whether Tehran really poses a nuclear threat to the world as the US and EU believe.
Tehran rejects Western accusations that it is trying to develop the capability to produce atomic weapons and insists it only wants nuclear fuel to peacefully generate electricity.
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