Solana hands over new offer to Tehran
EU’s Solana hands new incentives package to Iranian leadership in hopes of ending standoff over nuclear program, but Islamic Republic warns it will toss out proposal if it includes demand to stop uranium enrichment
Top EU diplomat Javier Solana handed Iran a major powers' offer of trade and other benefits on Saturday to coax it into suspending sensitive nuclear work, but Tehran ruled out any halt of its uranium enrichment.
"If the package (from six major powers) includes suspension it is not debatable at all," Iran's government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told reporters.
Solana's spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, said the incentives package was presented to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and that talks were taking place.
The European Union's foreign policy chief arrived in Tehran on Friday to outline the offer agreed in May by the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany in the latest bid to end a stand-off over Iran's atomic ambitions.
"Mr Solana handed (Iran) the letter of six ministers and the EU and also the package," Gallach said, referring to the foreign ministers of the six powers behind the offer. "The conversation continues."
The package, including civilian nuclear cooperation, is a revised version of one rejected by Iran two years ago and diplomats have played down any hopes of a breakthrough soon.
The world's fourth-largest oil producer has repeatedly refused stopping activities it says are for generating electricity but which Western powers suspect are aimed at making bombs.
Seeking to step up the pressure, the United States and the 27-nation EU have threatened more sanctions if the Islamic Republic does not stop enriching uranium, which has both civilian and military uses.
The incentives package, hammered out by the six major powers in May, is an updated and enhanced version of an offer spurned by Iran in 2006 that also included wider trade in civil aircraft, energy, high technology and agriculture.
Iran's refusal to stop enrichment, which can provide fuel for power plants or material for bombs if refined much more, has drawn three rounds of UN sanctions since 2006.
"If they were to reject this initiative, then we would expect there to be further EU sanctions imposed before the end of July," a senior British official said in London. "I'm not optimistic that this trip will be successful."
Solana says he hopes the incentives package will start a new process for resolving the long-running standoff, which has helped push up crude prices to record highs.
‘Incredibly dangerous’
Solana, who has said he expects no "miracles" in talks with Mottaki and other Iranian officials, said the offer would support Iran in developing a modern nuclear energy program and also covered political and economic ties."I am traveling to Tehran to present a generous and comprehensive offer," he said in a statement on Friday.
Solana is accompanied by senior officials from the major powers with the exception of the United States, which cut ties with Iran after its 1979 Islamic revolution.
On a farewell tour of Europe this week, US President George W. Bush said a nuclear-armed Iran would be "incredibly dangerous for world peace" and that "all options are on the table", alluding to military action as a last resort.
Concern in the oil market that Tehran's nuclear dispute with the West may lead to a disruption in its crude exports have helped drive oil to record levels near $140 a barrel, hurting the United States and other consumer nations.
