A senior Iranian official said yesterday that crisis talks this week with Britain, France and Germany are likely to be the last chance for the two sides to reach a deal on the Islamic republic's nuclear program. Speaking in Brussels, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged the talks were set to be "tough" but nevertheless said he was optimistic."Nothing special would happen" if the talks failed, national security official Ali Agha Mohammadi told the student news agency ISNA, adding that Iran would simply continue the "natural process" of pressing on with controversial nuclear fuel work. "We would reach the conclusion that we haven't got along with them," said the spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
Iran may view this as being "nothing special", but a breakdown in the talks and a resumption of nuclear fuel work — the focus of suspicions that Iran is seeking to develop the atomic bomb — could see the country referred to the UN Security Council. Emergency talks between Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani and the three European foreign ministers — Straw of Britain, Michel Barnier of France and Joschka Fischer of Germany — are due to take place in Geneva tomorrow, the day after an "experts" level meeting in Brussels.