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World powers meet to discuss Iran’s nuclear offer
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World powers meet to discuss Iran’s nuclear offer
World powers met in London yesterday to discuss a package of incentives and threats drafted by European countries aimed at defusing a crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Senior officials from UN Security Council permanent members China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain, plus Germany, tried to narrow divisions over how to proceed to persuade Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment work.
Washington and some western nations suspect Iran’s nuclear programme is a cover for efforts to develop an atomic bomb.
But the Islamic Republic says it is developing nuclear technology for civilian power generation. It has said it will not stop its nuclear work, even for incentives.
Officials were to discuss an offer of incentives and warnings hammered out by the European Union trio.
US President George W. Bush said the countries had to work together to encourage Tehran to halt its nuclear programme.
“Obviously we’d like to solve this issue peacefully and diplomatically, and the more the Iranians refuse to negotiate in good faith the more countries are beginning to realize that we must continue to work together,” Bush said at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
But Bush said Iran had so far not shown signs of agreeing.
“We’re spending a lot of time working with our Russian friends in particular to make it clear to them that Iran is showing no good faith,” Bush said.
British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett told parliament : “It is the intention to encourage Iran to see the nature of the choice that lies before it.”
The package was likely to include an offer of a light-water reactor and an assured supply from abroad of fuel for civilian atomic plants so Iran would not have to enrich uranium itself.
Targeted sanctions</B>
Enriched uranium can be used as a nuclear fuel, but is also a key component of atomic weapons. The package will also warn of possible sanctions if Iran, the world’s fourth-biggest oil producer, refuses the offer.
Diplomats said they would first discuss targeted sanctions, such as visa bans on officials involved in the nuclear programme, before seeking ways of curtailing trade deals. Some EU officials, analysts and the UN’s nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – want Washington to engage with Iran.
They believe the only way to entice Iran back to negotiations and getting it to stop its nuclear work would be a US pledge it would not to try to topple the Tehran government.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei held talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the matter. “ElBaradei will reiterate to the Americans that Washington needs to engage Iran directly,” said a senior Vienna diplomat familiar with his thinking and IAEA operations in Iran.
The Washington Post, citing US officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats, reported that Iran is making explicit requests for direct talks with the United States on its nuclear programme.
Top Iranian officials have asked intermediaries, including ElBaradei, to make clear to Washington their appetite for direct talks, it said.
According to the report, Iranian officials also made requests through Indonesia, Kuwait and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to convey their interestto Washington.
State Department spokeswoman, Nancy Beck, said there would be no immediate comment on the report.
<B>Madeline CHAMBERS</B>
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