WASHINGTON, Aug 30: Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry would offer Iran a "great bargain" over its controversial nuclear programme if he were to win the presidency
, Kerry's vice presidential running mate, John Edwards, said in a newspaper interview published on Monday.
Under Mr Kerry's proposal, Washington would lift its objections over Tehran's construction of nuclear power plants for civilian use if Iran agreed to abandon its efforts to keep nuclear fuel that can be used to make weapons, Mr Edwards told The Washington Post.
If Tehran rejected the terms of Mr Kerry's offer, Washington would consider it a confirmation of its nuclear bomb ambitions, he said. The United States would call on European allies to impose heavy sanctions on Iran if it failed to comply.
"If we are engaging with Iranians in an effort to reach this great bargain, and in fact this is a bluff that they are trying to develop nuclear weapons capability, then we know that our European friends will stand with us," he told the Post.
Mr Kerry's approach is a shift from President George Bush's policy. The Republican president's administration opposes the activation of Iran's power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr, which Tehran says is being built exclusively for civilian purposes. -AFP
