Analysis: Swiss uranium for Iran?

BERLIN, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Is the proposal to have Iran enrich uranium in Switzerland a way out of the international crisis sparked by Tehran's nuclear program? Most experts don't think so, but the Swiss may be of other help.

On Nov. 18, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the first time signaled he may be ready to have uranium enriched outside Iran.

Ahmadinejad said he would consider a plan proposed by Saudi Arabia to create a consortium for uranium enrichment in a neutral third country such as Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests in Tehran. The plan foresees that Switzerland could enrich uranium and supply it to countries in the Middle East with a civil nuclear energy program.

While Ahmadinejad rejected a similar Russian proposal, he did not do so right away with the Saudi one, which has some observers hoping for a way to end the impasse.

Yet others are less optimistic.

"I would be surprised if Iran is serious regarding the Saudi proposal," Erwin Haeckel, a Bonn-based Iran expert for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Tuesday told United Press International in a telephone interview. "I don't think they are really interested in enriching uranium in Switzerland, but rather want to gain time. And quite some time would pass until such a plan actually materializes."

Haeckel is likely also suspicious because Ahmadinejad has repeatedly claimed Iran would never give up its sovereignty when it comes to enriching uranium; he has also used the delay tactic in the past.

And even if Iran was serious -- observers doubt that Switzerland is in a position to be able to enrich uranium.

There exists no facility in Switzerland capable to enrich uranium for the country's five nuclear power plants, which rely on imported material. Because building such an enrichment facility is very expensive, it seems questionable that the energy companies in Switzerland would make such an investment.

Furthermore, several Swiss lawmakers have spoken out against such an undertaking, citing not only their unwillingness to back the plan, but also the political realities of direct democracy that would make its realization highly unlikely.

Yet the lawmakers are not against Switzerland taking over a mediating role in the ongoing nuclear standoff.

Swiss Foreign Minister and President Micheline Calmy-Rey recently said Bern wants to try to get Washington and Tehran back at the negotiations table. The traditional Swiss neutrality would put the country in an excellent position to play such a role, she said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Neue Zuericher Zeitung.

Yet while Iran just agreed to meet with the United States over Iraq, a quick way out of the nuclear impasse is not in sight, mainly because other roadblocks have emerged.

China has just canceled its participation in a meeting of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, thus faltering any chances of agreeing to a common position on tougher new sanctions as advocated by the United States.

"China has invested billions of dollars into Iran with regard to oil and gas, (and) it's assisting them in building up their infrastructure -- so basically China needs Iran to secure their energy supplies," Iran expert Peter Lehr told Radio Free Europe. Russia is not keen on tougher sanctions either, causing Washington to establish its separate path of promoting harsher economic sanctions.

The United States currently gets its strongest backing from France -- ever since President Nicolas Sarkozy took office, the French on key foreign policy issues side closer with a U.S. administration than they have done in years.

Like regarding Iraq some years ago, however, Europe remains divided on Iran, and unity is what the West most desperately needs when addressing Iran's nuclear program.