Time will tell…It doesn’t sound too much like a concession, but at the same time they are coming to the table, so we can hope.

Iran: We’re Ready to Negotiate Over Nuclear Program

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Monday said Tehran was "ready for any kind of negotiation to achieve our rights," renewing a call for further talks on the Islamic republic’s atomic program.

As officials from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members gathered in Paris to discuss strategy, Ali Larijani also called again for Iran’s dispute with the international community to be returned to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, headed by Mohamed ElBaradei.

"Let’s allow Mr. ElBaradei to do his job based on the international conventions," Larijani told group of students in Tehran University, the official Iranian news agency reported.

Diplomats representing the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, which hold Security Council vetoes, meet in Paris on Tuesday with Germany to discuss ElBaradei’s report to the council that Iran was in violation of the council’s demand that Tehran stop enriching uranium, a process that can produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb.

The report opened the way for the council to take punitive measures against Iran, but immediate action was not seen as likely because Russia and China now are opposed to international sanctions against Tehran at this point.

Iran contends it has a right to enrich uranium as long as it does not attempt to use it for nuclear weapons. Its opponents contend Iran ceded that right by conducting secret nuclear research and development.

Earlier Monday, government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham told reporters Tehran had earmarked $242.5 million for the completion of the Bushehr reactor in southwest Iran.

Larijani said Bushehr would go on stream in 2007. Iran had expected the plant, which was built with Russian help, to be in operation by the end of this year.

Of course, judging by this story, it sounds like the same old Iran to me…

Iran threatens Israel if US acts "evil"

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Tuesday to attack Israel in response to any "evil" act by the United States and said it had enriched uranium to a level close to the maximum compatible with civilian use in power stations.

The defiant statements were issued shortly before world powers meet in Paris to discuss the next steps after Tehran rejected a U.N. call to halt uranium enrichment.

Senior officials from the U.N. Security Council’s permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany were to discuss how to curb an Iranian program that Western nations say conceals a drive for atomic warheads.

Iran denies the charge and refuses to back down from what it calls its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

Driving home that message, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, said his country had now succeeded in purifying uranium to 4.8 percent, at the top end of the 3 to 5 percent range for fuel used in nuclear power plants.

"Enrichment above 5 percent is not on Iran’s agenda," Aghazadeh told the students’ ISNA news agency.

Iran has previously said it had enriched to more than 4 percent, far below the 80 percent level needed for bomb-making.

It has used a test cascade of 164 centrifuges to enrich uranium so far and is building two similar cascades. It says it will start installing 3,000 centrifuges later this year — enough to yield material for one bomb within a year.

The United States and Israel have vowed to deny Iran nuclear weapons. Washington has not excluded war if diplomacy fails, while Tehran has sworn to retaliate if attacked.

TARGETING ISRAEL

"We have announced that wherever America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel," ISNA quoted a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, Rear Admiral Mohammad-Ebrahim Dehqani, as saying on Tuesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map".

Iran’s deputy oil minister said there was "some possibility" of a U.S. attack on his country over its nuclear program.

"I am worried. Everybody is worried," Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian said in New Delhi after talks on a proposed $7-billion pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan.

Concerns that Iran’s dispute with the West could lead to disruption of its oil output pushed oil prices above $74 a barrel, close to the record of $75.35 touched last month.

The United States, Britain and France are expected to introduce a resolution to the Security Council this week that would legally oblige Iran to comply with U.N. demands. The three countries favor limited sanctions if Tehran remains defiant.

Iran said Russia and China, also veto-wielding permanent council members, would not back any punitive measures.

"The thing these two countries have officially told us and expressed in diplomatic negotiations is their opposition to sanctions and military attacks," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Iran’s Kayhan newspaper.

China and Russia both have big energy interests in Iran, the world’s fourth biggest oil exporter. Russia is also helping Iran build its first atomic power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr.

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. under-secretary of state for political affairs, said in Paris that Tuesday’s meeting would seek to keep the Security Council members and Germany united before a meeting of foreign ministers in New York on May 9.

Asked about Mottaki’s comments, he said: "All I know is that China and Russia say that they don’t want a nuclear-armed Iran. And China and Russia have voted with us against the government of Iran. So we intend to preserve this unity."

Burns said he expected a consensus to emerge over the next 30-40 days on the need to send a "stiff message" to Iran, adding that a range of sanctions had been discussed privately.

These included restricting exports to Iran of dual-use technology that could support its research and development or help it fabricate fissile material or a nuclear device.

Other options were travel curbs on Iranian officials and a ban on arms sales to Iran, such as a planned Russian missile deal. Oil and gas sanctions were not being discussed now.

"We hope that the U.N. Security Council, through a resolution, will send a firm and united message to Iran," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said in Paris.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says it cannot confirm that Iran’s goals are peaceful, but has found no proof of a military program.

A U.N. resolution would be adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, making it binding in international law. A separate resolution would be required for sanctions or military action.

(Additional reporting by Alireza Ronaghi and Parinoosh Arami in Tehran, Mark Heinrich in Vienna, Jon Boyle in Paris and Himanghsu Watts in New Delhi)

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