Reuters: Iran might send a nuclear package in response to incentives agreed by six world powers that are seeking to persuade Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment program, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday. TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran might send a nuclear package in response to incentives agreed by six world powers that are seeking to persuade Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment program, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday.
He did not specify what changes to the Western powers’ package Iran might seek but Tehran has rejected the central crux of the proposal — that it should give up enriching uranium.
“We hope that shuttle diplomacy will lead to a genuine proposal from the Islamic Republic that could possibly be sent to European counterparts as an amendment or a counter-package and that will be assessed carefully by the Europeans,” Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
Iran has been referred to the U.N. Security Council, where it could face sanctions, after failing to convince the international community that its atomic scientists are looking to build power stations, not weapons.
The United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China have agreed a set of incentives for Iran on the condition that it stops making nuclear fuel, something Tehran has said it will never do.
Among the incentives, which Western diplomats say include offers of a light-water reactor and a facility for storing atomic fuel, is a U.S. offer to join the European Union’s direct talks with Iran.
Although Mottaki’s remarks are an indication of some Iranian dissatisfaction with the deal, the last word on nuclear matters does not lie with the foreign ministry.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has entrusted nuclear matters to the Supreme National Security Council and has appointed Ali Larijani as chief negotiator.
