TEHRAN:Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva heads to Tehran on Sunday for a non-aligned summit the United States and Russia have said might offer Iran’s last chance to avoid tough new UN sanctions.
Iran had hoped to use the opportunity to hold talks on its nuclear issue with Brazil and Turkey — the other key mediator in the standoff with the West over Iran’s controversial nuclear program.
But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he was unlikely to go to Tehran over Iran’s failure to confirm a commitment to a UN-brokered deal backed by world powers.
Turkey and Brazil are both non-permanent members of the UN Security Council and have so far resisted US-led efforts to push through a fourth package of sanctions over Iran’s failure to heed repeated ultimatums to suspend its sensitive uranium enrichment activities.
"I think we would view the Lula visit as perhaps the last big shot at engagement," a senior State Department official told reporters on condition of anonymity on Thursday.
That was echoed on Friday by Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, who said "it may be the last chance before the adoption of appropriate decisions within the framework of the Security Council.
"I very much hope that the Brazilian president’s mission will be crowned with success," he said at a news conference with Lula in Moscow.
Lula has defended Iran’s nuclear activities, saying Tehran has the right to atomic energy, and has repeatedly said sanctions would be counter-productive and ineffective.
But the US State Department has indicated that time is running out before it puts forward a sanctions resolution in the UN Security Council.
"In the next few weeks, we expect to table a resolution in New York," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington on Thursday.
"We continue to move forward on a sanctions resolution. We have a sense of urgency on this."
To hammer home the point, the White House revealed that President Barack Obama and Medvedev had discussed Iran by telephone on Thursday and agreed to step up negotiations on a new sanctions package.
The two leaders noted the "good progress" and "agreed to instruct their negotiators to intensify their efforts to reach conclusion as soon as possible," a statement said.
Russia’s agreement would leave China as the last remaining holdout among the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, bringing the prospect of sanctions much nearer.
Diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff have focused on UN-drafted proposals in October for Iran to ship out most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium in return for a supply of nuclear fuel by the major powers.
The plan aims to allay Western concerns that Iran might otherwise covertly enrich some of its stocks to the much higher level required for a nuclear bomb.
Iran has repeatedly baulked at the idea of shipping out its stockpile before its receives the fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor and has demanded that the exchange happen simultaneously and on its own soil.
Last week, however, its ambassador to Brazil, Mohsen Shaterzadeh, said that an exchange in a third country might be acceptable.
Turkey, which although a close Western ally also has close relations with its eastern neighbour, has repeatedly offered to act as that third country.
Ankara had expected Iran to confirm a commitment to the UN fuel deal with Turkey as a possible venue for the swap, Erdogan said on Friday.
But "it seems that a trip to Iran on Monday is no longer possible for me as Iran has not taken that step on the issue," he said. "If necessary my foreign minister may go, or I may go later."
Turkish officials had earlier said Erdogan was considering the visit with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, noting that the decision was dependent on the outcome of his talks with Iranian and Western officials, notably a phone call on Thursday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
A senior US official said Clinton had used the call to clarify the US position.
"We have an ongoing conversation with Turkey who will be playing a pivotal role as we go forward and we want to make sure there is a common understanding about where we are," the official said.
Two key backers of Turkey’s mediation efforts — Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, both sympathetic to Iran — are also expected in Tehran from Sunday.
