Brussels, 18/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - With talks only resuming on 26 February in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Iran has apparently already rebuffed the proposal made by the E3+3 (Germany, France, United Kingdom, China, Russia and United States) to ease sanctions in exchange for Iranian measures regarding the Fordow power plant.
According to officials cited by Reuters, on 15 February, the E3+3 thus intends to propose easing of the sanctions on the trade in gold and other precious metals in exchange for Iranian measures relating to uranium enrichment at the Fordow power plant. The proposal is also said to call upon Teheran to fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
According to the officials, the proposal, which is only a modest update of the previous proposal, shows that the major powers are relatively sceptical about Teheran being ready to conclude an agreement before its presidential elections on 14 June. One official said the offer is a way of testing whether the Iranians are in earnest or not. Still cited by Reuters, he said they did not believe that the Iranians had given them much reason for doing more.
On 17 February, however, Iran announced its refusal to close its Fordow uranium enrichment plant. “Fordow will never be shut down because … our national duty is to be able to defend our nuclear and vital centres against an enemy threat”, the chairman of the foreign policy and national security committee of the Iranian Assembly, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, told the ISNA agency, adding that the offer to close Fordow down is intended to help Israel.
The European External Action Service did not wish to respond to this - either on the E3+3 proposal or on the Iranian reaction to it. (CG/transl.jl)