TEHRAN, 8 June 2006 — Iran was yesterday studying an international offer of incentives if it agrees to suspend uranium enrichment, with officials neither rejecting the offer nor indicating they would meet the condition.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who jetted in to Tehran to present the proposal on Tuesday, said he was “more optimistic today than a month ago” — when Iran was ruling out any talk of halting sensitive nuclear work.
“On the nuclear question, we prefer cooperation to confrontation,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying.
“The proposals were submitted by Solana and we are going to carefully study them,” said Mottaki. “Shuttle diplomacy, if it is in good faith, would allow us to find grounds for understanding.” The package — which offers trade, diplomatic and technology incentives in return for a freeze of enrichment — was drawn up by Britain, France and Germany and is backed by the United States, Russia and China.
It is aimed at resolving fears that Iran could acquire nuclear weapons yet at the same time seeks to guarantee the country’s access to atomic energy. Top national security official Ali Larijani has said it contained “positive steps” but also “ambiguities” — signaling no immediate decision from Tehran was likely.
“I don’t say that everything has been resolved but I’m more optimistic today than a month ago,” Solana told reporters in Potsdam, eastern Germany. “I hope they will call me back soon and give an answer to the proposal.”
“I am ready to go back to Tehran if it is necessary,” he added.
US President George W. Bush also cautiously welcomed Iran’s “positive” initial reaction.
“We will see if the Iranians take our offer seriously. The choice is theirs to make,” Bush said Tuesday in Texas. “I want to solve this issue with Iran diplomatically.”
A Western diplomat told AFP the “offer gives Iran a choice. The condition is that Iran returns to a suspension, and this condition is nonnegotiable.
“The deadline is one of several weeks, basically before the end of the month and before the G-8 meeting” in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in five weeks’ time, he said.
“Even if the emphasis at the moment is on incentives, the suspension is something we won’t back down on. Iran has taken a first step by accepting to consider the offer, whereas in the past they have rejected such a thing,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.
While being offered carrots, Iran also faces the stick of robust UN Security Council action, including a range of possible sanctions, if it rejects the offer. Russia, however, still appeared to be against the use of sanctions in the dispute.
“Any measures that could be supported by Russia in the Security Council can only be in situations when Iran starts to act in contradiction to its obligations under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.
