|
TEHRAN: Iran was on Sunday considering an offer from world powers
aimed at resolving the six-year nuclear crisis but hopes of a
breakthrough were dim after Tehran appeared to bluntly reject a key
condition.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana delivered
over the offer on behalf of world powers to top Iranian officials on
Saturday, saying it was “full of opportunities” for the Islamic
republic.
The deal offers talks on a package of
technological and economic incentives, so long as Tehran suspends
uranium enrichment activities, which the West fears could be used to
make an atomic bomb.
But barely hours into Solana’s visit, Iranian
government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham announced that Tehran
would reject any package that does not allow it to enrich uranium,
the key sticking point in the crisis.
The hardline Kayhan newspaper, the mouthpiece of
Iran’s clerical authorities, scoffed at the package and said
Solana “was not here to negotiate but on a mission to threaten
Iran”.
The aim of his visit was “to force Iran to
give into illegal Western demands and to force Iranian officials to
give into the American and Western allies’ blackmail,” it said.
US President George W. Bush, whose
administration has led the campaign against Iran, made no effort to
hide his belief that the package was effectively dead on arrival.
“I am disappointed that the leaders rejected
this generous offer out of hand,” he said in Paris.
“A nuclear-armed Iran is incredibly
destabilizing,” he added. “It would be a major blow to world
peace.”
Solana however insisted there was still life in
the package and urged Iran to give a “positive” answer.
“We are in front of a win-win situation,” he
said, speaking alongside representatives of world powers
spearheading efforts to find a solution to the crisis.
“The fact we are here together in Iran shows
how seriously we regard this problem and how serious we are in
trying to find a solution,” he said.
“We need to restore trust and confidence in
the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.”
Solana held meetings with Iranian Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and top national security official Saeed
Jalili. Both were keen to emphasize Iran’s answers would depend
how the West responds to Tehran’s own package.
Iran last month launched a package, which it
described as an all-embracing attempt to solve the problems of the
world, including the nuclear crisis. It suggests setting up
consortiums to enrich uranium, including in Iran.
“To enter into an atmosphere for new
negotiations, it is necessary to understand the new capacities of
Iran in the region and the world,” the official IRNA news agency
quoted Jalili as telling Solana.
Ali Larijani, the powerful new speaker of
parliament who Jalili replaced as top nuclear negotiator last year,
took a more conciliatory line: “The parliament will study the
package with alertness,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
The West wants Iran to halt enrichment over
fears it could use the process to make an atomic bomb and the UN
Security Council has slapped three sets of sanctions on Tehran over
its defiance.
Tehran insists it has every right to enrich
uranium to manufacture fuel for future power plants.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been
investigating the nuclear drive for over five years but has never
been able to conclude whether it is peaceful.
A US State department official warned that
rejection of the package would mean “further isolation of Iran and
would lead to further international sanctions.”
The United States has also never ruled out
military action and Bush last week warned that “all options”
were open.
The offer makes it clear that Iran must suspend
enrichment if it is to enter into negotiations with world powers.
“The elements are proposed as topics for
negotiations. . . as long as Iran verifiably suspends its enrichment
related and reprocessing activities,” according to the text.
The offer, a “refreshed” version of a June
2006 proposal, recognizes Iran’s “right to develop research,
production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”
It also offers a range of technological and
economic incentives, including support for the construction of light
water reactors, help with supplying nuclear fuel and the
normalization of economic relations with the West.
-- AFP
|
