TEHRAN, 7 August 2005 — Iran rejected yesterday the Europeans’ proposal for a settlement of its nuclear standoff with the West, saying the offer failed to recognize Iran’s right to enrich uranium.

Germany accused Iran of being “confrontational.” It and France forecast the matter would go to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions, unless Iran backed down.

“The European proposals are unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told Iranian state radio. He said the primary reason was the failure to allow Iran to enrich uranium. Uranium enriched to low levels is used in nuclear power reactors, but further enrichment makes it suitable for nuclear bombs.

“We had already announced that any plan has to recognize Iran’s right to enrich uranium,” Asefi said.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Iran was taking a “confrontational course” and forecast that the rejection would bring Iran’s nuclear program to the UN Security Council.

In remarks released by broadcaster ARD, Schroeder said it was up to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, to decide the next step.

“One has to expect that it (the IAEA) will put it before the Security Council, if Iran doesn’t come round,” Schroeder said in the interview, which was recorded yesterday for broadcast today.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy urged the Iranians to think again, saying: “I plead for the (Iranian) leaders to take the time to examine the proposals with care.”

In remarks to Journal du Dimanche, released ahead of publication today, Douste-Blazy said that if Iran maintains its rejection, the case would go to the Security Council.

The International Atomic Energy Agency plans to meet Tuesday to discuss nuclear safeguards in Iran. The UN nuclear watchdog has repeatedly warned Iran not to resume uranium conversion at its facility at Isfahan until an IAEA monitoring system is in place.

Iranian radio said yesterday that IAEA officials were on their way to Iran to install surveillance equipment and remove seals at the Isfahan plant to enable operations to resume. The facility converts raw uranium into a gas that is the feedstock for enrichment.

The IAEA board could refer Iran to the UN Security Council, a move that the United States has previously lobbied for. The council could impose sanctions on Iran.

Asefi said the IAEA meeting “lacks any legal justification” and was a case of “psychological war.”

On Friday, Britain, France and Germany had sought to entice Iran into a commitment not to build atomic arms by offering to provide fuel and long-term support to help it generate electricity from nuclear reactors.

The Europeans also offered economic, political and security cooperation if Iran accepted the plan. The United States, which has led opposition to Iran’s nuclear program, endorsed the European proposal.

Iran’s new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in yesterday, minutes before Asefi announced the rejection. In his inauguration speech, Ahmadinejad did not mention the nuclear dispute directly, but said his government would not bow to foreign pressure.

“I don’t know why some countries do not want to understand the fact that the Iranian people do not tolerate force,” Ahmadinejad said.

Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes and has denied US allegations that it is a cover for making atomic bombs. But the discovery that Iran had kept aspects of the program secret for many years raised concerns in Washington, Israel and Europe.

Iran insists it has a right to enrich uranium as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.