Iran was given a month to respond to a package of incentives it was given in June to stop enriching uranium, and responded Tuesday. While the contents have not been disclosed, the U.S. State Department said in a statement Wednesday it “falls short of the conditions set by the Security Council, which require the full and verifiable suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.”
That was a much less harsh tone than expected from the Bush administration, which has been leading the call for U.N. sanctions against Iran. U.S. officials told ABC pressure mounted from European countries overnight Tuesday to hold off on strong language and to allow time for countries to carefully consider Iran’s response.
Iran denies it has plans to develop nuclear weapons with the enriched uranium, and claims it is only for generation of electricity.
