Iran Minister Downplays Chances of Nuclear Face-Off

In speeches for international audiences on Thursday and Friday, Manuchehr Mottaki stepped back from the escalation promised earlier by Tehran if Iran's nuclear issue was taken up by the United Nations Security Council. On Wednesday, the 15-member council demanded that Iran cease uranium enrichment within 30 days.

Although Mottaki made it clear that Iran had no plans to stop enrichment, he said that his country would not use oil as a weapon and that it would not withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. He also renewed a proposal for an international nuclear fuel consortium in Iran to operate under strict supervision of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran made the same offer last year, and it was rejected by the United States.

"I wish to stress that Iran's nuclear question can be approached from two perspectives: Cooperation and interaction or confrontation and conflict. I underline that my country has prepared itself for both possibilities," Mottaki said Friday in a speech to a Geneva security think tank that was broadcast by video link to a conference at Princeton University.

For the moment, Iran's strategy seems to be to issue a series of mixed messages that reflect domestic divisions, as well as an attempt to maintain the nuclear program while avoiding international isolation, experts say. In an apparent show of strength Friday, Iran's military announced it had successfully test-fired a radar-eluding missile with multiple warheads.

U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said that the missile test underscored Iran's determination to pursue weapons, including nuclear arms.

"I think it demonstrates that Iran has a very active and aggressive military program underway," he said. "That includes both, as we've talked about before, efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction, as well as delivery systems."

Iran's dual signals also exploit international uncertainty on how to move forward, say experts.

"It has been the general pattern over the two months to send a message that they are ready to talk, but at the same time, show a very resolute defiance," said M. Hadi Semati, a Tehran University professor who is a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. "They are trying to send a signal that they won't concede but won't provoke, either."