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The UN nuclear watchdog's latest resolution on Iran was followed by Tehran's cautiously resolute rejection and ushered in the most sensitive period of the issue.
A looming deadlock is racking all parties concerned: Iran, the United States, the European Union (EU) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The resolution, adopted on Sept. 18, urges Iran to suspend all of its nuclear activities and fully cooperate with the inspectors to clear up related issues. It also schedules a further discussion in late November.
Washington was somewhat satisfied with the resolution even though it can not satiate the superpower's ambition of strangling Iran's nuclear activities.
However, it would be surely difficult for the United States to persuade the international community to impose harsher measures on Iran.
In fact, Iran's bid for the right of peaceful nuclear exploitation is undeniable.
The promise of peaceful use of nuclear energy has been repeated Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei, who assured that seeking nuclear weapons contradicts Islamic doctrines.
Furthermore, the IAEA inspectors have not found any evidence to show Iran is developing atomic weapons secretly since they started harsh supervision on the country's nuclear sites in last December.
What is more nightmarish is that should Iran shut the door of cooperation, the United States would have a lot to bother and could not help probing into what's really going on behind the curtains.
Although Iranian President Mohammad Khatami vowed that Iran would not seek nuclear weapons even without supervision, many analysts have pointed out that if the unwelcome prospect happened, Washington would have no efficient way to prevent Tehran from doing so.
For Iran, what the IAEA requests has exceeded Tehran's utmost of compromise for the first time.
The rising conservatives have been accusing Khatami's cabinet of being too weak.
They complained that the confidence-building measures taken by the government failed to be rewarded, and Iran's voluntary moves, including suspension of uranium enrichment and centrifuge assembly, have been taken for granted.
Angered by such diplomatic setbacks, some extremists have advocated withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and its safeguards, which, by the way, have not been approved by the conservative-dominated Majlis (Parliament).
Taking the recent conservative trend and next year's presidential election into account, one can not help but worry about the possibility that Iran's retreat may be accelerated.
The EU must be the most unwilling to see Iran turning to conservative.
As a crucial broker of Iran's nuclear issue, the EU has succeeded in encouraging Iran to become more transparent on the nuclear issue, which helps the two sides build a good friendship and would predict a promising economic cooperation.
But the goodwill was marred by the fact that the EU yielded to the US pressure twice on the IAEA Board of Governors' meetings in June and September.
Most Iranians argued that the dependence on the EU is a wrong decision. Some even felt that Iran was deceived by the EU.
Similarly, the IAEA also hates the possible aggravation of Iran's case, for the impasse within the nuclear watchdog's framework would weaken its influence to some degree.
The Iranian nuclear issue racks every party concerned. But, unfortunately, there has been no proposal of compromise so far that can be accepted by all, mainly the United States and Iran.
(Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2004)
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