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02/08/2010

The nuclear dispute between the West and Iran escalated over the weekend after Tehran said it would intensify its nuclear program and effectively rebuffed Western proposals for a deal by restating conditions deemed unacceptable by the international community.

Raising fears that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Sunday that Iran would start enriching uranium to 20 percent for a Tehran research reactor, which Iran claims is for producing medical isotopes used for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Analysts said that would bring Tehran a big step towards the enrichment of at least 90 percent needed for weapons-grade uranium. Western powers have been trying to persuade Iran to refrain from nuclear enrichment by offering to swap Iran's low-enriched uranium for higher-grade nuclear fuel. But the two sides have failed so far to agree on how to implement the plan.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had raised hopes that Iran might be preparing the ground for a deal when he paid a surprise visit to the Munich Security Conference. But he merely restated conditions for the proposed swap -- that any fuel exchange must be simultaneous and that Iran would determine the quantities involved.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Saturday that Iran had so far failed to make meaningful concessions. "Our hand is still reaching out toward them. But so far it's reaching out into emptiness," he said. "And I've seen nothing since yesterday that makes me want to change that view."

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he did not believe an agreement was close and suggested it was time for more sanctions on Iran. The five permanent UN Security Council members -- United States, China, Russia, Britain and France -- plus Germany met on Friday to discuss Iran, and China again voiced its opposition to new sanctions.

German media commentators say the time has come for the West to impose new sanctions against Iran, and that even China must recognize that Iran is merely playing for time. If China blocks a new Security Council resolution on sanctions, the EU should impose sanctions unilaterally, says one editorial.

Business daily Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"Mottaki's offer is Iran's latest tactical maneuver in a long-term strategy: making bogus offers to the West in order to win time. Time in which Tehran can work on a nuclear weapon.

"It's a one-sided deal which the West cannot agree to. The EU should insist on additional embargos within the UN and -- if China blocks them -- push them through on its own if it has to. If Iran wants to avoid new sanctions it must come up with significantly more."

Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Iran's regime displays sensational chuzpe by taunting anyone who tries to put relations with it on a reliable footing. The behavior of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Munich and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allow only one conclusion -- that the Tehran government is ignorant of the most basic customs in dealing with the international community, or has already taken a decision on its nuclear program that makes an agreement with the rest of the world impossible, with the exception of China, which evidently backs this policy."

"All this is triggering a tragic momentum that will boost all those who favor a military strike against Iran. But we should be careful: before engaging in all the careless talk about military options, the arsenal of alternative options must be exhausted. The time for new sanctions has come. Rarely has the West been so duped in response to well-meant offers. Even China can't ignore that in the Security Council. Iran damaged itself this weekend. Sanctions should be decided on before the end of February."

Center-left Frankfurter Rundschau writes:

"Why did Iran's top diplomat even bother coming to Munich? If it was his intention to avert the next round of sanctions with the usual mollifying statements, he failed badly. Nevertheless, the UN veto powers plus Germany are walking a tightrope. There are no special sanctions that could target just the regime or the Revolutionary Guards. Sanctions only make sense if they really hurt -- and that inevitably entails hurting the population. The regime could seize on that as an opportunity to call for the great national struggle against the evil rest of the world and to choke off its domestic opposition. It could spell the end of the Green Movement."

Conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"The Western governments including the German government should brace themselves for an escalation of the nuclear dispute with Iran. They have just been given the runaround by the Tehran leadership again. Tehran is masterful at playing for time, at fanning false hopes. This dispute requires patience, but it also requires an equal measure of decisiveness to stand one's ground. Iran has the right to use nuclear power for civilian purposes but the Iranian regime must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons."