The United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia proposed giving technical and commercial incentives to Iran if it were to stop making atomic fuel.
But Iran was deemed to take too long to reply and was referred to the U.N. Security Council. The world body promptly passed a resolution telling Tehran to halt atomic work or face the threat of possible sanctions.
The Foreign Ministry said this resolution would automatically kill off the package of incentives, but government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said Tehran would still reply.
“We are still ready to answer the proposed package in the timeframe we gave, and we will answer,” he was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
However, there are no signs Iran will give a positive reply to the package and allay Western fears that Tehran is building atomic weapons.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani have said Iran will continue to produce nuclear fuel regardless of the international calls for it to stop. Larijani even says Iran will expand uranium enrichment.
Iran says it needs atomic fuel exclusively to run power stations.
