Iran crosses red line, can enrich uranium up to 20pc grade

[Peter Presland]

I guess we've all become inured to the patently absurd, surreal nature of much of what passes for official explanations of their geo-political manoeuvrings but this really does deserve a prize.

Remember how Iran has been under escalating threat of further sanctions if it does not accede to EU demands over its uranium processing activities?

Well guess what the EU reaction is when it indicates that it will indeed accede to those demands?

That's right. The offer is rejected on the grounds that .... wait for it .... it is being made to avoid the threat of further sanctions!

Honest. And there was I thinking Joseph Heller's 'Catch 22' was THE classic bind.

This from today's Guardian:

Officials say Ahmadinejad's offer to export uranium in return for fuel rods was aimed at ducking threat of sanctions

European officials yesterday dismissed an apparent offer by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to relaunch negotiations over Iran's uranium stockpile as a time-wasting gambit aimed at ducking the threat of sanctions.
They said the Iranian president's offer to export uranium in return for fuel rods, under a deal struck last October that subsequently fell apart, would not be taken seriously unless it was presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Diplomats in Vienna, where the IAEA has its headquarters, said last night the agency had not received any formal signal that Iran was ready to change its negotiating position.
Officials in Europe and Washington argued the timing of Ahmadinejad's comments seemed aimed more at forestalling sanctions, under discussion at the UN security council, than at striking a deal. "My interpretation is that they're buying time," the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said today. "But it's been some years – since 2007 – that we've been talking. And I don't see progress … I am perplexed and bit pessimistic.""

Julian Borger: 'Optimism dashed because they went back on agreement' Link to this audio Ahmadinejad used a Tuesday night interview on Iranian television to revive talk of a deal provisionally agreed in Geneva last year, under which up to 75% of Iran's low enriched uranium (LEU) would be shipped out, initially to Russia, and returned – about a year later – in the form of fuel rods for a research reactor in Tehran.
After heated debate on the issue in Iran, the government told the IAEA in January that the exchange of LEU for fuel rods would have to be simultaneous. That was rejected by western negotiators, for whom the year-long time lapse was an essential part of the deal, because it would temporarily reduce Iran's stockpile of LEU, which the west fears could be further enriched into fuel for a warhead.
Negotiations appeared to have broken down last month, but Ahmadinejad seemed to reopen bargaining in his television interview. "We have no problem sending our enriched uranium abroad," Ahmadinejad said. Critically, he also accepted the idea that there could be a time lapse of "four to five" months between the export of the uranium and the return of the fuel rods.
In his interview Ahmadinejad played down the concerns of Iranian critics that the deal was a trap intended to cheat the country out of its hard-won uranium by saying that Iran could easily enrich more if necessary.
The Iranian president's time lapse of four to five months fell well short of the year that western negotiators said it would take to further enrich Iranian uranium to the level required by the research reactor, and then manufacture the fuel rods. Some western officials raised the hope that it could be an opening bid intended to open serious new negotiations, but most questioned the seriousness of Ahmadinejad's the offer.
They said it was not clear whether the president was representing his own views, or a new consensus in Tehran. He did not say whether he was ready to export the 1,200kg of LEU agreed in Geneva in one consignment, or in several batches. The latter would also be unacceptable to the west, again because it would not lead to a serious reduction in the Iranian stockpile.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, also made clear yesterday that his government was not prepared to accept significant deviations from the deal struck in Geneva. He said Iran had failed to stick to that provisional agreement, but had put forward proposals that were "not supported by the IAEA and which were motivated not by an interest in finding a technical solution but more by some kind of distrust".
He added: "If Iran is ready to return to the original formula we will only welcome this."
His German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle told journalists that "Iran has to be measured by its actions, not by what it says. "It is up to Iran to show an end to its refusal to negotiate."
Although sanctions are being discussed at the security council, serious disagreements between the US and China, for example on internet freedom and on Tibet, have diminished the prospect of any consensus in the next few weeks.
Since Russia signalled it might agree to new sanctions last September, China has emerged as the principal opponent to punitive measures among the security council's five permanent members.
The Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, called for continued negotiations with Iran with the aim of finding a diplomatic solution. "We want a consensus as soon as possible," he said.