World ratchets up pressure; Iran defiant

GENEVA (AFP/Reuters) - World powers on Wednesday piled pressure on Iran to come clean about its disputed nuclear activities ahead of crucial talks in Geneva, but a defiant Tehran said it would emerge from the meeting unharmed.
The talks on Thursday (today) come after Iran disclosed last week the existence of a hitherto secret second uranium enrichment plant and just days after it caused more world anger by testing missiles that could reach Israel.
Iran is comprehensively failing to cooperate, it is comprehensively failing to live up to its international commitments, German Chancellor Angela Merkels spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told reporters.
The head of the UNs nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, told Indian TV channel CNN-IBN that Iran was on the wrong side of the law by not declaring its new enrichment plant in Qom before last week.
European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana will conduct the talks with the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, along with senior officials from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US.
Tehran said it viewed talks with six world powers in Geneva as an opportunity and a test, while the US weighed sanctions over Tehrans nuclear programme if Thursdays meeting fails.
Jalili said he was heading for the talks with a positive approach while atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran was ready to discuss concerns about its new enrichment plant.
However, Salehi also maintained there can be no bargaining about Irans right to master the civilian nuclear fuel cycle under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and ruled out a freeze on enrichment.
Solana stressed ahead of the meeting, the first of its kind for 14 months, that the five permanent powers in the UNSC and Germany needed guarantees from Tehran that its nuclear programme was only peaceful.
But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at Western demands that Iran give access to the new enrichment site. He said the Geneva talks gave an exceptional opportunity for US and a few European countries to correct the way they interact with other world nations.
These talks could be a test to verify whether some governments are determined to follow up the slogan of change, Ahmadinejad said according to IRNA news agency, referring to Obama.
The negotiators can definitely adopt any policy that they want, but we will not be harmed, the Fars new agency quoted the president as saying.
US officials are focusing for now on diplomatic efforts, but the White House is considering sanctions targeting Irans dependence on gasoline imports and insurance firms that underwrite the trade.
Ahmadinejad proposed an organised structure for the discussions, with three committees dealing with different issues, and an assembly of heads of states of the countries involved as the top decision-making body, Fars News Agency said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki is visiting Washington to inspect the Iranian interests section at the Pakistan Embassy, but there are no plans for him to meet US officials, the State Department said on Wednesday.
State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said Iran asked that Mottaki be allowed to visit the embassy, which represents Iran in the absence of diplomatic ties with Washington.
I wouldnt read too much into this ... it was a straightforward request and we granted it, Crowley told a news briefing.In Geneva, a senior US official said Iran must take steps to restore confidence in its peaceful nuclear intentions during the talks.
We want them to come prepared to focus on the nuclear issue and demonstrate that they are willing to take steps to restore the confidence thats been lost in their peaceful intentions, the official told reporters in Geneva.