Hopes fading for Iran nuclear talks

President Barack Obama's offer of direct U.S.-Iranian talks on nuclear and other issues still stands — but Tehran seems uninterested. Negotiations were stalemated even before Iran's crackdown on citizens demonstrating against what they say was a skewed election in favor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The last meeting on the nuclear issue was a year ago. It ended within hours, with Iran spurning an offer by six world powers — Washington and the other permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany.

At the Geneva talks, the six offered to refrain from new U.N sanctions if Iran froze its uranium enrichment program. The tradeoff was designed to set the scene for in-depth talks the West hopes would end in Tehran agreeing to a long-term freeze of enrichment, which can make both nuclear fuel and nuclear warhead material.

Periodic contacts with Iranian officials by Javier Solana, the EU envoy acting as an intermediary for the six powers, have remained inconclusive since Obama took office. Iran's position remains the same — its program is for peaceful purposes and no compromise on enrichment, despite three sets of Security Council sanctions and the implicit threat of more.

Responding to the most recent formal offer in April from the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia for a new round of nuclear talks, Iran said it was ready for constructive dialogue but reiterated that it won't freeze its program.

But the West has not sweetened its offer — although time is running out in the effort to blunt Iran's nuclear threat.

Since its clandestine enrichment efforts were revealed more than six years ago, Tehran has steadily increased activities at its cavernous underground facility at Natanz, a city about 300 miles (500 kilometers) south of Tehran.

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security recently estimated that —even without expanding its present program — Iran could accumulate enough material to produce weapons-grade uranium for two warheads by February 2010.

Yet Iran continues to expand its capabilities. And both Tehran and Washington are ratcheting up the tough talk in the wake of Iran's crackdown on opposition protests. The rising tensions further hurt the already feeble chances of nuclear compromise.

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