TEHRAN, May 13: Iran on Saturday warned that it would only consider new European incentives aimed at finding a deal over its atomic programme if the offer recognises its right to enrich uranium.

The comments from Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki starkly underlined Tehran’s refusal to abandon a process that western countries want Iran to renounce and is the key sticking point in the escalating nuclear standoff.

“Any incentive that does not include Iran’s right to nuclear technology and the ways to secure it will not have any attraction for the Iranian people and government,” the IRNA news agency quoted Mr Mottaki as telling reporters in Indonesia.

For Iran, the right to nuclear technology means first and foremost its right to uranium enrichment, a highly sensitive process that can be used both for making nuclear fuel and in a weapons programme.

Europe is currently preparing a new package of trade, security and technological incentives to try to entice Tehran away from uranium enrichment and resolve the nuclear crisis peacefully.

However Mr Mottaki warned the Europeans ‘not to make the same mistake’ he said they made last August when they came up with a list of incentives that also demanded Iran give up uranium enrichment.

“We hope that our case will be dealt in a way that Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear technology will be recognised,” Mr Mottaki told reporters in Bali, where he was attending the D-8 summit with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.—AFP