BEIRUT — World powers this week failed to come up with a unified strategy to press Iran on halting controversial elements of its nuclear program, as a report emerged suggesting the country had made progress in advancing a little-examined feature of its atomic infrastructure.
Diplomats said Friday that American, European, Russian and Chinese officials meeting the day before in Paris had not reached agreement on further steps to pressure Iran to halt uranium enrichment at its facility in Natanz. Enrichment is a highly technical process that can produce fuel for a nuclear power plant or fissile material for atomic weapons.
After the talks ended without any new measures to announce, the French Foreign Ministry released a statement saying the international community had "reaffirmed the importance of the dual-track approach" of engaging diplomatically with Iran and pressing for sanctions.
Moscow's Interfax news agency quoted Russian diplomat Sergei Ryabkov, who attended the meeting, as saying the parties had struck no deal on sanctions. "The Western countries are for the sanctions," he was quoted as saying. "China, like Russia, did not back it."
Meanwhile, a report released this week says Iran has made significant progress at another facility: a heavy-water research reactor being built near the city of Arak, which could eventually produce plutonium that might be used in a nuclear weapon.
According to satellite images published by the Institute for Science and International Security, construction at the Arak plant progressed significantly between February and October.
"It's slipped everyone's notice," said David Albright, a former arms inspector and president of the Washington-based institute. "If you look at the satellite image, it's really making progress. In a year and a half, it's gone from building frames to largely finished."
Iran says it is pursuing nuclear technology to produce energy and conduct research. But the U.S. and its Western allies suspect that Tehran's efforts to produce low-grade uranium, legal under international arms control regulations, is a precursor to creating a weapons infrastructure.
The latest developments show the complex diplomatic and technical challenges the team of President-elect Barack Obama will face in trying to stop Iran from mastering technology that could be used to make and use nuclear weapons.
