The reaction from the major powers has been unenthusiastic, to say the least. In general, officials say they are tired of hearing more words from the Islamic Republic and want deeds instead.
The frustration from the major powers comes from hearing constant proposals from Tehran that never go beyond the rhetorical stage.
Ahmadi-nejad’s offer to halt all 20 percent enrichment and limit enrichment to less than 5 percent also struck many as laughable given that it came just a few weeks after the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran had announced it was going to triple its production of uranium enriched to 20 percent. It is hard to treat a government seriously when it makes totally contradictory announcements just a few weeks apart.
Even Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed frustration with Iran, saying the Islamic Republic must actually do something and not just flap its lips.
Ahmadi-nejad has now made the offer to halt enrichment to 20 percent three times, explaining that it was just too expensive for Iran to make such fuel itself, something the regime has never admitted before.
“If they give us the 20 percent fuel, we will immediately halt 20 percent enrichment,” he said in an interview on state television last Tuesday. “Production of 20 percent fuel is not economical. It is expensive and there is no [export] market that would justify continuing to operate the plant.”
For his domestic audience, he justified halting 20 percent enrichment by saying it was a way to prove Western charges wrong since critics around the world say Iran is enriching to 20 percent to “get one step closer to the bomb,” which requires uranium enriched to about 90 percent.
Iran says it has been enriching some uranium to 20 percent because its small reactor in Tehran used to make medical isotopes needs 20 percent fuel to operate. Some analysts think Iran has not been able to make the factory process that converts 20 percent uranium into the fuel rods required by the Tehran reactor. Others say Iran will eventually be able to master that, but it would be outrageously expensive to build a factory that would only operate briefly every few years to make the fuel.
Ahmadi-nejad pointedly offered to stop enriching to 20 percent if the major powers supplied fuel rods for the Tehran reactor. That was actually a big step backward from what had been discussed more than a year ago. Ahmadi-nejad then endorsed a proposal to send Iran’s 20 percent uranium to Turkey and to allow Turkey to hand that over to the West once the West had delivered the fuel rods, which cannot be used to make a bomb.
In his comments in recent weeks, Ahmadi-nejad has said nothing about giving up Iran’s existing 20 percent uranium. That is proof to many in the West that Ahmadi-nejad’s offer can’t be taken seriously as it would leave Iran in possession of uranium that could be processed for a bomb.
Many officials from the major powers showed clear exasperation with Iran.
Lavrov called for less talk and more action. “Iran has to do the first step—for example, give up centrifuge production and then we can renounce adoption of new sanctions.” But he also criticized his western partners. “Should Iran get a clear message that our efforts are aimed at non-proliferation but not regime overthrow, we will get a chance to start serious talks.”
At the US State department, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was blunt—and repetitive. “We need to see a sign of seriousness,” she last week. “We have, as yet, not had anything besides words out of Iran.… If they’re serious, we’ll be prepared to talk. They have to come ready to talk seriously … rather than just giving speeches.… So far, we’ve had lots of rhetoric, but not a lot of serious action.”
Earlier she said, “Ahmadi-nejad makes a lot of empty promises. He knows exactly what has to happen. If Iran has a serious proposal to put forward, it has to put it forward to the IAEA.”