TEHRAN, June 7: Iran was Wednesday weighing 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 Mr Solana and we are going to carefully study them,” said Mr Mottaki. “Shuttle diplomacy, if it is in good faith, would allow us to find grounds for understanding.”
Top national security official Ali Larijani has said it contained “positive steps” but also “ambiguities” — signalling 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,” Mr. 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.
A Western diplomat told AFP the “offer gives Iran a choice. The condition is that Iran returns to a suspension, and this condition is non-negotiable.
“The deadline is one of several weeks, basically before the end of the month and before the G8 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,” said the diplomat.—AFP
