TEHRAN, Dec. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The Iranian nuclear issue, coming in the spotlight for more than two years, has verged on a dangerous crisis in 2005 due to the country's U-turn to hard line.  

    To defuse the crisis, all concerned parties have been engaged in persistent explorations of a compromise avenue on Iran's highly sensitive uranium enrichment claim, which is the crux of the tough nut.

    PROLONGED NEGOTIATIONS AND EU PROCRASTINATION   

    In October 2003, foreign ministers of the European trio of Britain, France and Germany paid an epoch-making visit to Tehran, starting the union's long march to seek diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

    Under the persuasion of the European trio, Iran adopted several confidence-building measures, including voluntary suspending uranium enrichment and signing the additional protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which allows the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to carry out snap inspections on its nuclear facilities.

    Iran's most remarkable step came in November 2004. It downrightly suspended all activities related to uranium enrichment, which opened the gate to negotiating with the European Union (EU) over its promised economic and technological incentives.  

    However, the consequent negotiations did not proceed as smoothly as expected due to the two sides' uncompromising positions on Iran's construction of nuclear fuel cycle. As a result, The EU behaved sluggishly when pressurized by Tehran on a proposal about the incentives.

    Iran insisted that as a signatory to the NPT, it has been legally endowed to build its own fuel cycle and therefore must not been prohibited from enriching uranium, a key step for fuel cycle construction.

    The EU, on the other hand, holding that enriched uranium of high-degree can be used as material of atomic bombs, fixed itself on the condition that Iran must permanently halt the enrichment-related work.

    The first quarter of 2005 witnessed heated quarrels between Iran and Europe on the enrichment, randomly sprinkled with the United States and Israel's threats to launch preemptive attacks on Iran¡¯s nuclear facilities.

    Then, Tehran became increasingly impatient. It slashed the EU for delaying the talks to fatigue Iran's resolution and will, warning that the procrastination would only fatigue the Iranian nation¡¯s patience and tolerance.

    The two sides held a round of talks in Geneva on May 25, during which the EU agreed to present a comprehensive plan over the promised incentives within two months, which was viewed as a move to wait for the outcome of Iran's ninth presidential election in the following month.