AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Tehran: Iran said Monday it was preparing a counter-offer as officials rejected a key stipulation in a proposal by world powers for the Islamic republic to halt uranium enrichment ahead of nuclear talks.
A day after other regime officials implicitly rejected the international incentives offer — which hinges on Tehran's suspension of sensitive nuclear fuel cycle work — by refusing any preconditions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad weighed in with a similar statement.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always favored a just and equal dialogue with no preconditions,” state television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a meeting with Iran's top officials and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The hardline president said a counter-offer was being prepared to one presented earlier this month by the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, which he nevertheless described as “a step forward.”
“Our experts are examining the proposal, after the examination … Iran's views will be submitted to the other party,” he added.
Alaeddin Borujerdi, Iran's head of the parliamentary foreign affairs commission, was cited by the press as predicting a starkly different counter-offer from the one proposed by world powers.
“Our views are not like theirs. Our proposals will definitely have some differences,” Borujerdi said.
The London-based Financial Times quoted regime insiders as saying Iran was ready to limit its nuclear program but would not suspend uranium enrichment as a precondition for international talks.
“Around 70 per cent of senior people may be prepared, under pressure, to accept an eventual limit on the number of centrifuges (for enriching uranium),” one of the two anonymous sources was quoted as saying.
The source added that Tehran would give the international community “objective guarantees” of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.
Tehran is set to make its counter-proposal within the next two weeks in response to the package of incentives, according to the Financial Times.
Other Iranian officials said Sunday they would not accept any “preconditions” for fresh international talks, implicitly rejecting demands that the Islamic republic suspend uranium enrichment.
The five permanent Security Council members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany have made a suspension of enrichment a non-negotiable precondition to their proposed incentives package.
The offer, presented to Iran on June 6, involves incentives and multilateral talks if Iran agrees to a temporarily halt the sensitive nuclear activity and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran insists its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to produce energy, but the United States and its allies suspect the program is a cover for atomic weapons-making.
Washington has said it expects a response from Iran before the end of June.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday that “if the Europeans act with logic and reason, the chances for a result are there. If the Europeans respect our rights, they will have greater credibility.”
He did not explicitly mention enrichment, but Iranian officials invariably refer to the activity as a “right” enshrined by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also refused to explicitly say if Iran would agree or refuse to suspend enrichment.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy urged Iran to suspend uranium enrichment if it wishes to avert UN sanctions.
“Iran must in return meet the repeated demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Security Council in particular by suspending its sensitive nuclear activities,” Douste-Blazy told reporters during a visit to Qatar.
“This would make possible a resumption of negotiations, and Security Council action would obviously no longer be necessary, ” Douste-Blazy said.
