One official added: “We will be looking to impede ways that Iran might develop nuclear technology, and to bring home to the Iranian leadership that it cannot defy international community without some penalty.”

Europe and the US will try to crack down on equipment supplies through the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime. The US and Europe hope that the pressure will cause the regime to split. “I think there will be quite a debate in Tehran,” said the official. “I think they don’t want to put themselves in the position of North Korea.”

There have been some signs of dissent. Former President Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on state radio on September 30 that Iran should talk with its opponents to achieve trust, and that “here you need diplomacy and not slogans”.

On October 10 reformist legislator Mohammad Reza Tabesh said that the Government had failed to handle Europe well and urged the return of its former negotiating team. Legislator Hussein Afarideh also spoke out against the “mistaken measure” of a “hasty” reshuffle of the team. The reformist Sharq newspaper called the foreign policy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, ineffective, and recommended the creation of a “crisis diplomacy team ”.

But there is little sign of wavering from those close to Mr Ahmadinejad. On Wednesday, Keyhan, a hardline Iranian paper supportive of the President, ran an uncompromising analysis of the strength of Iran’s position, which may well reflect the President’s thinking.

“Some of the so-called reformers have become very frightened and very intimidated, as though as the result of these policies a great calamity would immediately descend upon the country,” it said.

But “what we have is worth [all the trouble], because an Iran that possesses nuclear capability would be an unrivalled regional power”, it added. If it added nuclear energy to its oil and gas, “Iran shall have a unique position in the field of energy in the world”, it said.

“One cannot put a price on such an advantage . . . This is not something that any rational politician would like to give up as soon as he hears some hue and cry or faces some empty threats.”