Brussels, 18/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of a G8 meeting last weekend in Washington, the United States said the European Troika formed of Germany, France and the United Kingdom would this week attempt new mediation to persuade Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme. The aim is to prevent the issue from going from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to the United Nations Security Council, as Washington would like. Teheran wasted no time in giving its reaction: Iran will not accept the European proposals unless they are in line with Iran's national interests.
Germany, France and the United Kingdom "pointed out that they would present their ideas to Iran next week", Tom Casey, Spokesman for the US State Department, said on Friday without, however, giving more details on the content of these proposals. According to diplomatic sources cited by AFP, the proposals would mainly aim at presenting "incentives" to Teheran to freeze all uranium enrichment activity, a process that can result in both civil and military use. Incentive measures included an offer to resume trade talks with the EU and guaranteed access to Russian nuclear fuel for civil purposes. Along the same lines, the IAEA also recently evoked an offer that would allow Iran to import nuclear fuel for civilian use in exchange for total cessation of enrichment activities.
In Washington, the United States kept to its usual line. Tom Casey said the United States has for a long while clearly said that the IAEA Board of Governors was to refer the matter of Iran's failure to comply with its obligations to the Security Council. Washington seems resigned to the fact that Europeans should be allowed to seek further and last mediation, with G8 members having agreed that the IAEA Board of Governors, which is to meet on 25 November in Vienna to resolve the matter, will take the affair before the Security Council if Teheran rejects the European proposals.
On Sunday, in Teheran, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry reacted saying: "We have not yet received the European proposals. They will not, however, be acceptable to us unless they are in line with our national interests and recognise our legitimate rights to civil nuclear technology, especially the nuclear fuel cycle". "Our rights are not negotiable, but we shall obtain our rights through negotiation and dialogue", Hamid Reza Assefi added.