France takes tough line at Iran nuclear talks

Hopes that an accord can be reached to contain Iran’s nuclear programme appeared uncertain on Saturday as France expressed concern about Tehran’s refusal to suspend work on its plutonium-producing reactor and downgrade its stockpile of more highly-enriched uranium.

As foreign ministers from world powers continued to hold talks with Iran over a possible deal to curb its nuclear activities, France expressed doubts about a draft agreement, making demands on Tehran that appeared to be tougher than those from the US and Britain.

Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, told France Inter radio that he would not accept a “sucker’s deal”. He said: “As I speak to you, I cannot say there is any certainty that we can conclude.”

One of the two main sticking points at negotiations in Geneva focuses on the Arak heavy water reactor south east of Tehran. Western diplomats have long feared that the reactor could produce enough plutonium to give Iran a nuclear bomb at a later date unless its operations are halted.

A second sticking point concerns Iran’s stockpile of more highly enriched uranium which is close to weapons grade. Iran has said that it will stop production of more highly enriched uranium at the 20 per cent concentration. But it is unclear whether it is prepared to convert its existing stockpile of 20 per cent uranium into a form that would make it impossible to use in a nuclear weapon.

Despite the hitch, it is possible a deal could be agreed this weekend. Diplomats say that it is highly unlikely that France would be able by itself to block a deal if the US, the UK, Germany, Russia and China were to press ahead with it.

Some diplomats suggest that France might be playing “bad cop” to the US “good cop” in a bid to extract final concessions from Iran before a deal is signed.

France has long been regarded as the most hawkish of the four western powers that negotiate with Iran over its nuclear programme, the three others being the US, Britain and Germany.

That hawkishness has been a feature of all the recent French presidencies and reflects the country’s deep-seated political commitment to the principle of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal pointed to “rather large cohesion”’ among the negotiators, and said France wanted “the international community to see a serious change in the climate” of talks with Iran.

“There have been years of talks that have led to nothing,’’ Mr Nadal said, alluding to the need for tough terms on Iran.

Another major bone of contention may be the limited willingness of western powers to remove sanctions in return for Iran’s commitment to halt key aspects of its program.

A member of Iran’s negotiating team, Majid Takt-Ravanchi, told Mehr news agency on Friday that oil and banking sanctions imposed on Tehran should be eased during the first phase of any deal.

William Hague, Britain’s foreign secretary, said on Saturday: “These negotiations have made good progress and continue to make good progress. But there are still important issues to resolve. We are going to have to give a lot of time and attention to those issues in the course of today and there is no fixed time for us to reach a conclusion.”

Mr Hague added: “We are very conscious that some real momentum has built up in these negotiations. There is now a real concentration on these negotiations. So we have to seize the moment to reach a deal that has eluded the world for a very long time.”