EU to offer Iran best civil nuclear technology
BELGIUM: The European Union is ready to share the most
sophisticated civilian nuclear technology with Iran if it agrees to halt
uranium enrichment on its soil, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana
said.
But the initiative seemed likely to be rejected by Iran, and drew a
reserved response from Washington.
The EU plans to offer Tehran enhanced incentives to halt sensitive
nuclear activities that the West suspects are aimed at producing a bomb,
coupled with a U.N. resolution threatening possible sanctions if it
refuses.
"We could help you (Iran) with the best and most sophisticated
technology," Solana told a news conference after EU foreign ministers
met to discuss the package.
Without giving details, he said the European offer - which it hopes
to present to Iran at the end of the month - would go beyond the
comprehensive package of technological, economic and political
sweeteners rejected by Tehran last August.
Diplomats said at the time that the original package included
allowing Western companies to build nuclear power stations in Iran and
supply fuel to them.
The 25-member bloc insisted in a joint statement that as a
prerequisite for any incentive, Iran would have to agree to "suspend all
enrichment related and reprocessing activity, including research and
development".
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had already pre-emptively ruled
out any such trade-off on Sunday.
On Monday his foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, told the
ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany:
"Any demand for a suspension or pause (of uranium enrichment) is an
illogical and unacceptable demand and undoubtedly will be rejected."
The United States has agreed in principle to the EU presenting a new
package offer to Iran, provided it accompanies a U.N. resolution paving
the way for possible sanctions if Tehran does not suspend uranium
enrichment activities.
No U.S. administration spokesman was available for comment. But
diplomats in Washington said Bush administration officials who opposed a
now-defunct 1994 deal that promised North Korea nuclear reactors were
concerned that such an EU offer to Iran would reopen the door for
Pyongyang to seek similar treatment.
The EU statement acknowledged Iran's right to use nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes but said the EU fully supported a U.N. resolution that
would make legally binding international calls for it to suspend nuclear
enrichment.
Brussels, Tuesday, Reuters. |