Getting their story straight

Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall in this meeting.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator meets with Russian officials in Moscow Tuesday, a day after Tehran upped the ante in its nuclear standoff with countries wanting to refer it to the U.N. Security Council.

Ali Larijani's talks with Russian Security Council chief Igor Ivanov and others come after Iran warned that referral to the U.N. Security Council would lead it to immediately forge ahead with a full-scale uranium enrichment program.

With little more than a week until the Feb. 2 meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board, high-level international diplomacy has intensified.

Moscow has proposed having Iran's uranium enriched in Russia, then returned to Iran for use in the country's reactors, a compromise that would provide more oversight and ease tensions. But haggling has continued over the specifics of the proposal, including Tehran's proposal to have China involved in the Russian enrichment process.

A European official said Monday the Iranian and Russian officials would discuss the possibility of allowing Iran to conduct small-scale experimental enrichment itself if it agreed to move all industrial production to Russia. The official demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential details of the negotiations.

Also Tuesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari met in Moscow with the head of the Russian Atomic Energy Agency, Sergei Kiriyenko. The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Iranian Ambassador Gholamreza Ansari as saying that Iran was waiting for "several clarifications" from Moscow regarding the Russian proposal.

Tied together by oil and construction and defense deals, Russia and Iran are in an awkward position. Russia does not want to alienate itself from the West by openly supporting Iran against the West in Iran's determined push for nuclear weapons. On the other hand, Russia doesn't want to throw Iran under the bus and agree to potentially severe sanctions.

Iran is trying to figure out how it can keep using Russia to stall for time to complete its nuclear weapons program. Look for Iran to continue to agree/not agree/ask for more time in responding to Russia's plan to process nuclear waste in Russia.