Khamenei reaches out, ready to talk Iraq with US

Talks at the United Nation Security Council on a response to Iran’s nuclear programme remained stalled as diplomats from Russia and China argued with representatives of the European Union and the US over how hard to press Iran to halt its efforts to start uranium enrichment.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the ultimate say in Iran on all state matters, said that Iran was prepared to discuss ways to stabilise Iraq with a US delegation. ‘‘If the Iranian officials can make the US understand some issues about Iraq, there is no problem with the negotiations,’’ Khamenei said in a speech broadcast on state television. But he went on to warn the US that Iran should be treated with the respect appropriate to one of the most powerful countries in the regions: ‘‘If the talks mean opening a venue for bullying and imposition by the deceitful party (the Americans), then it will be forbidden,’’ said Khamenei.

Meanwhile diplomats close to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna confirmed that Iran had now assembled 164 centrifuges — enough to combine into what engineers call a cascade, which can be used to spin uranium hexafluoride gas into enriched uranium. That step would put Iran back to the level of technology it had achieved before it agreed to a moratorium on nuclear development in 2003.

During the moratorium, some of its equipment deteriorated, nuclear experts believe. Iran has yet to complete the crucial piping system needed to move uranium gas from one centrifuge to the next. Until the latter step is complete and the system is sealed, enrichment cannot begin. Experts disagreed over how long those next steps could take. ‘‘This is the next rung on the technical ladder,’’ said David Albright, a former weapons inspector who is now president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington.

Iranian leaders insist that they are trying to gain the knowledge necessary to make enriched uranium for civilian uses. While it is technically possible to manufacture enough highly enriched uranium for a bomb using a 164-centrifuge cascade, the process would take 10 years. Weapons experts do not think that is Iran’s plan. Instead, the experts say their concern is that running a small cascade would give Iran the technical knowledge to build and operate a far larger one. — Alissa J. Rubin