Iran Live Coverage: Tehran's Positive Signals for Nuclear Talks

See also Iran Live Coverage: Seeking the "Unity" Candidate for the Presidency

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1923 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Fars News, close to the Revolutionary Guards, has reported comments by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, in Kazakhstan ahead of Friday's nuclear talks.

Speaking at a university in the Kazakh capital Almaty, Jalili said that the talks were a "test of America's behaviour" and that they would open with a discussion of Iran's right to enrichment.

The test would be "whether the US will accept or deny our natural right to enrich uranium, which is recognized by the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty", he said.

The Iranian nation expects that the US will change its behaviour and not just talk about doing so, Jalili said.

The Secretary of Iran's National Security Council answered a question put by a student, who asked about the impact of June's Iranian Presidential election on the nuclear issue.

"Today, there is a national consensus over defending the rights of the Iranian nation," he said, saying that all parts of the Iranian society were defending Iran's "inalienable" nuclear rights.

Jalili also commented on the situation in Syria, echoing the regime line that the Syrian people should be able to decide their fate in free elections.

1803 GMT: Nuclear Watch. A follow-up to our comment that "while Iran is indicating that its expects the 5+1 Powers to respond to Iranian proposals and priorities, the US and Europe will expect to Iran to reply on the basis of the 5+1's agenda" --- Scott Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor reports:

There has been a very positive line out of Tehran on the talks so far,” said [a senior] US official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We hope that that positive talk will now be matched with some concrete responses and actions on the Iranian side.”

"The onus is really on Iran to respond to the proposal and tell us where they stand," the American official said.

Then the US official puts out a threat: "[If Iran] does not take concrete steps to address the concerns of the international community, pressure only will increase.”

The Monitor also has details of the 5+1's proposal:

[It] calls on Iran to suspend all enrichment above the 5 percent needed to fuel power reactors; to convert its existing 20 percent enriched uranium into fuel for a research reactor, and export or dilute the rest; and to put its deeply buried Fordow enrichment facility in a “reduced readiness status without dismantlement".

The proposal lists a number of specific technical steps to be taken at Fordow, including piping and cable disconnections, vacuum adjustments, and removal of “feed and withdrawal systems” that have until now enabled Iran’s centrifuges there to spin uranium to 20 percent purity.

Iran would also have to accept “enhanced” monitoring of its nuclear facilities, including cameras at Fordow to provide “continuous surveillance with live stream transmission” to the Vienna headquarters of inspectors of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In exchange, and “after IAEA confirmation that Iran has implemented all these measures,” the US and European Union would suspend sanctions on gold and precious metals, and the export of petrochemicals.

The P5+1 would also offer civilian nuclear cooperation, including providing fuel for an aging research reactor in Tehran – which requires 20 percent enriched uranium for fuel – as well as IAEA technical help with acquiring a modern research reactor, safety assistance, and supplying of isotopes for nuclear medicine.

The US would further “license safety-related inspection and repair in Iran for Iranian commercial aircraft” bought years ago from American plane-makers.

Snap analysis? If this is indeed the 5+1 proposal, there is no chance of any advance in the talks tomorrow and Saturday --- Iran will see the proposed sanctions relief as "peanuts" for the "diamonds" of uranium enrichment that they are giving up.

1439 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. More than 350 political and social activists have demanded the release of Mehdi Khazali, the detained blogger who is on hunger strike.

Khazali, who has periodically gone with food in prison, began his latest strike in mid-January.

1434 GMT: Nuclear Watch. The positive spin for tomorrow's high-level nuclear talks with the 5+1 Powers continues in Iranian media. Ali Bagheri, the deputy negotiator for Tehran, has said, "The Islamic Republic will enter the new round of talks with the P5+1 group of world powers with clear, groundbreaking proposals."

Note, however, a key difference between Bagheri's declaration and the statement of Catherine Ashton, the lead negotiator for the 5+1 Powers (see 0530 GMT).

Bagheri is indicating that Tehran expects the 5+1 Powers to respond according to Iran's proposals and priorities --- whereas Ashton puts the onus on Iran to "consider the proposal we put on the table and respond to it".

1220 GMT: Syrian Militias Trained in Iran? James Miller writes....

According to Reuters, "irregular militias" are being sent to a secret base inside Iran to be trained in guerrilla warfare.

Reuters interviewed four fighters who said they were taken on the combat course in Iran, as well as opposition sources who said they had also been documenting such cases. Israel's intelligence chief and a Western diplomat have said Iran, Assad's main backer, is helping to train at least 50,000 militiamen and aims to increase the force to 100,000 - though they did not say where the training occurred.

No one at Iran's foreign ministry was available for comment, but Iranian officials have repeatedly denied military involvement in the Syrian conflict, saying they have only provided humanitarian aid and political support for Assad.

A source in the Syrian government told Reuters that the claim was untrue, but Reuters describes, with significant detail, how men from majority-Alawite areas were shipped to Iran to train alongside Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon.

The programme was also described as an "open secret" in some pro-government areas of the country.

0622 GMT: Election Watch. The New York Times finally jumps into coverage of the politics in Iran in the run-up to June's Presidential election, "Power Struggle Gripping Iran Ahead of Vote".

The overview of the situation --- President Ahmadinejad versus almost everyone else within the Iranian establishment, with the Supreme Leader supposedly providing resolution --- will have little new for anyone following EA on a daily basis.

Far more interesting is the lack of cutting-edge information in the article to offer an analysis beyond the headline. There is no reference to the actual attempt of the Supreme Leader to block a crisis --- namely, the efforts of the "2+1 Committee" to find a unity candidate.

Nor does the article seem to realise that the Ahmadinejad camp is always preparing for an alternative if its preferred choice, the President's right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, is blocked by the Guardian Council from running.

0610 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The Indian Government has approved the dissolution of a joint shipping venture with Iran.

Iran-o-Hind Shipping Co (IHSC), backed by both New Delhi and Tehran, will be dissolved, ending its links with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

The step was taken to protect India from US-led sanctions. IRISL is under a series of economic restrictions, amid the Western sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

0530 GMT: Nuclear Watch. On the eve of high-level discussions with the 5+1 Powers in Kazakhstan, Iran's officials and media are putting out positive signals.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that an advance was imminent given development of the approach taken in the last discussions, in the Kazakh capital Almaty in February. Official media played up the departure of the Iranian team --- led by the Secretary of the National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, to Almaty.

Perhaps the most interesting signal, however, is the treatment of a statement from the other side. On Wednesday in Turkey, the lead negotiator for the 5+1 Powers, the European Union's Catherine Ashton, gave a matter-of-fact response to journalists:

I remain always cautiously optimistic but I'm also very clear that it's very important to get a response. I look forward to what I hope will be a successful meeting in Almaty and I really do hope that Iran will now... consider the proposal we put on the table and respond to it.

If you dissect the words carefully, Ashton is being non-committal while putting the onus on Tehran to move toward the position of the 5+1 Powers, on issues from enrichment of 20% uranium to sanctions.

Press TV, however, sets that aside in its headline, "EU's Ashton 'Cautiously Optimistic' about Iran-P5+1 Talks".