Time running out for nuclear diplomacy with Iran

The major world powers of the UN Security Council permanent five plus Germany have been using a dual track approach of negotiations.

BRUSSELS, February 10, 2010 (AFP) - The United States could soon abandon its diplomatic approach to Iran's nuclear programme in favour of tougher action, a senior US official warned Wednesday.

The major world powers of the UN Security Council permanent five plus Germany have been using a "dual track approach" of negotiations and punitive action to persuade the Islamic republic to stop enriching uranium.

"We had a dual track but it is less and less likely that we are going to be able to maintain that dual track and not move to the pressure track very soon," said Ellen Tauscher, US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

"We are running out of time to do what is right ... and to ease the tension in the region," she told reporters during a trip to NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Her remarks came after Iran announced Tuesday that it had begun work to enrich uranium to 20 percent, which it says is for a medical research reactor in Tehran.

The move suggested Iran was spurning a proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ship most of its stocks of 3.5-percent enriched uranium abroad so that it can be further upgraded to fuel the reactor.

Experts say that once Iran enriches uranium to 20 percent, it could proceed to the 93 percent needed to produce nuclear weapons since the technology is the same. Iran insists its atomic programme is only for civilian use.

"It goes in the wrong direction, that is not building confidence," Tauscher said, adding that the move creates "significant doubts amongst their regional neighbours and the world community generally as to what their motives are."

"This is not the time where there ought to be that much confusion about what your motives are," she added.