WarSclerotic

Iran tentatively accepts a Russian “step-by-step” deal to end Tehran’s nuclear standoff with the West, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday, reiterating what he called Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy.

In July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. President Barack Obama of Moscow’s “step-by-step” approach, under which Iran could address questions about its nuclear program and be rewarded with a gradual easing of sanctions imposed by countries that fear Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons, a charge it denies.

	In a photo from 2009, Iranian technicians work at a facility producing uranium fuel for a planned heavy-water nuclear reactor, just outside the city of Isfahan.
	Photo by: AP

Speaking in a joint press conference with Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov, Salehi was quoted by the semi-official FARS news agency as saying that Tehran accepts the Russian offer “in principle,” adding that the “proposal displays Russians’ goodwill for ending this superficial nuclear case of Iran.”

“We emphasize our right to use the peaceful nuclear energy as much as we are loyal and committed to the [International Atomic Energy] Agency’s statute,” the Iranian foreign minister told FARS.

With Israel and Washington both keeping the possibility open of launching pre-emptive strikes on Iran to stop it getting nuclear weapons, the negotiations are a possible way to avoid what analysts say would be highly risky military action.

But after the failure of the last talks, between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, plus Germany (known as the EU3+3 or P5+1), in Istanbul in January, few analysts expect a breakthrough.

Russia backed a fourth round of UN sanctions against Tehran in June 2010 but has criticized tighter measures imposed unilaterally by the United States and the European Union and emphasized its opposition to military action.

Therefore, Tehran might be more receptive to an approach from Moscow than one from the West — the E3+3’s delegation is led by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

“It’s certainly easier for Iran to respond to a Russian gambit than to Western pressure. The E3+3 negotiating efforts with Iran are stuck dead in the water,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, a non-proliferation expert at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“If Russia’s plan can get Iran to the negotiating table, then great. Talks have to start somehow.”

Not only is Moscow not part of the Western alliance Iran sees as its greatest enemy, it is also involved in developing part of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, as builder of its first atomic power plant at Bushehr on the Gulf coast.