EU fears for future of Iran nuclear talks Senior EU officials expressed concern on Thursday that international dialogue over the Iranian nuclear programme is close to collapse, amid signs that Tehran is preparing for the failure of a forthcoming round of key talks. Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, is due to meet senior diplomats from the EU and six world powers in Moscow on June 18 for what would be the third round of talks in under two months to try to seal a deal over the nuclear programme. However, Mr Jalili this week accused Lady Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief who convenes the six world powers, of "dithering" in preparation for the Moscow meeting, saying that she was refusing to hold preliminary expert meetings to draft "an agenda for the talks." According to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency, which quoted Mr Jalili, the EU's action has "created an atmosphere of doubt and ambiguity for success of the Moscow talks." EU officials acknowledged that relations with Iran ahead of the Moscow meeting had taken a turn for the worse, after an exchange of tensely worded letters between Iran and Lady Ashton's office. The EU officials said that they were happy to hold meetings of technical experts ahead of the full negotiations in Moscow. But the officials said these had to be on substantive issues relating to the nuclear programme, and that Iran merely wanted more discussion about matters of process. "We have done everything we can to make the negotiations work at both the senior and expert level, " said a senior EU official, "but they need to involve serious and substantive dialogue. We are surprised to see the Iranians taking the first steps in what appears to be a blame game aimed at scuppering talks in Moscow. We hope they turn up at Moscow and are serious. What we're seeing right now is very disconcerting. Western diplomats said they have found it difficult to read Iran's underlying intentions over recent days as the Iranian leadership engages in public attacks on Lady Ashton. "It may be that they are setting us up for a fall in Moscow, accusing the EU of not doing adequate groundwork," said another western diplomat. Or this could be the usual bizarre tactics that ultimately come to mean little. Our fear is that it is the first. Failure of the diplomatic talks in Moscow would inevitably raise concerns that Israel could press ahead with a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities this year. The talks are widely seen as the last chance for a negotiated solution over the Iranian nuclear programme before it reaches what Israel regards as a point of no return. Iran's current prevarication could indicate that Tehran sees no future in the talks if a recognition of its right to enrich uranium and a scaling back of US and EU sanctions are not put on the table as part of an initial deal. However, the six-nation group - comprising the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China - has told Iran that such issues can only be part of a final settlement. Diplomats say they can have no place in the initial confidence-building agreement that the international community is trying to get Tehran to agree to. Iran's tactics could also indicate that Tehran is relying on the fact that the Obama administration does not want to see the current talks collapse ahead of the US presidential election - for fear this would strengthen Israeli pressure on the US for military action. However, failure of the negotiations in Moscow would bring significant costs to Iran. It would embarrass Russia, the host of the Moscow talks, which has been more lenient towards Iran in its diplomacy. Failure would also see the US and EU pressing ahead 12 days later with the full implementation of energy and banking sanctions.