Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, May 21 – Iran has presented a package of nuclear proposals to the chief of the United Nations nuclear watchdog in a bid to counter a similar offer to be made by major world powers to Tehran to convince it to abandon its controversial nuclear activities.
Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, May 21 – Iran has presented a package of nuclear proposals to the chief of the United Nations nuclear watchdog in a bid to counter a similar offer to be made by major world powers to Tehran to convince it to abandon its controversial nuclear activities.
Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Wednesday offered the package to the IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, the official news agency IRNA reported.
"The latest status of the Iran-IAEA cooperation was investigated in the course of the meeting", Soltanieh told IRNA in Vienna after his 45-minute meeting with ElBaradei.
He said the proposed package contained security, economic and energy related points.
Iran has ruled out suspensing uranium enrichment, a key demand of successive United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed earlier this month that the Islamic Republic would resist UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear work.
World powers agreed earlier this month in London to offer Iran a "refreshed" package of incentives to convince it to halt enrichment and come to the negotiating table.
The Security Council voted in March to impose a third set of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to halt its suspected nuclear weapons activity. A European-sponsored resolution was adopted at the 15-member Council by 14 votes in favour, none opposed, and one abstention from Indonesia.
Resolution 1803 increased the mild trade bans in effect on Iran to include certain goods with both civilian and military uses. Under the new sanctions, certain Iranian companies and banks will have their accounts frozen, and goods entering and leaving Iran must be subjected to inspections.
The Security Council previously imposed two sets of milder sanctions on Tehran in December 2006 and March 2007 over its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment activities which the West suspects is part of a nuclear weapons program.
