EU trio set to meet on Iran in London next week

DPA: Representatives from France, Britain and Germany will meet next week to hammer out a new package of incentives aimed at persuading Iran to stop its suspected military nuclear weapons programme, European diplomats said Thursday. DPA

BRUSSELS – Representatives from France, Britain and Germany will meet next week to hammer out a new package of incentives aimed at persuading Iran to stop its suspected military nuclear weapons programme, European diplomats said Thursday.

European Union diplomats said that French, British and German officials would meet in London in the middle of next week, instead of May 19 as initially planned.

The talks, expected to take place on May 23 or 24 will focus on plans to offer Tehran a “very substantial” offer of cooperation in civilian nuclear technology despite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rejection of the planned package, the diplomats said.

“Work continues…on the nuclear issue, the offer will be attractive and go very far,” said one EU diplomat. The European package is expected to include an offer to build a light water nuclear reactor in Iran for the peaceful production of energy.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels earlier this week said they were ready to offer Iran “the most sophisticated civilian nuclear technology” if it halted uranium enrichment and other processing activities.

However, Ahmadinejad, speaking in the central Iranian city of Arak, on Wednesday rejected the planned offer. “They (Europeans) think they are dealing with a four-year-old kid whom they want to deceive with a piece of walnut or chocolate and in return take from him the piece of gold,” he said.

France, Britain and Germany were asked by the UN Security Council members earlier this month to make one final diplomatic attempt to end the current standoff with Iran by developing a new set of trade and technology incentives.

EU diplomats said work at the Security Council on a draft resolution, which could include the threat of sanctions against Tehran, was continuing in parallel with Europe’s diplomatic efforts.